Dawn
by KmJ170
Summary: The back of Forward Unto Dawn is thrown into Insurrectionist space - and with dying systems, John must find his way home... Somehow. Read my Short Story, "Friends" first. Sorry everyone for the slight holdbacks. I'm beginning my short story that serves as an epilogue for this section and a prologue for the next, so there will delays. Beta needed for short story/Dawn
1. Chapter 1

**DAWN**

**Part 1: Harvest**

**Prologue**

Mendiciant Bias sped through the space surrounding Installation 4B. The Reclaimer must _not _fall to the Prometheans. He had to save him...

The damaged Forerunner Monitor reached the portal about seven seconds before the _Forward Unto Dawn_. Frantically, he fired his energy beam into a broken piece of metal - welded it on in flash of ruby laser - repaired. Linking his white manipulation beam into the main power slot, he directed his internal power into it.

The _Dawn _fully immersed itself into the portal, and with Bias's dying burst of power, he directed the back half of the _Dawn _towards the Milky Way - there wasn't enough power to calculate the subspace jump to the Sol System...

The Forerunner monitor's super casing cracked with a green flash, the last reserves of power into the Portal...

.

...And the back half of _Forward Unto Dawn_ randomly jumped into the Milky Way..."Chief? Can you hear me?"

.

"Chief? Can you hear me?"

John slowly came into conciousness. What had happened?

Cortana sounded relieved. "I thought I'd lost you, too."

John floated by his MA5C, snagged it and shoved it onto his back. "What happened?"

Cortana sounded preoccupied. "I - I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn't sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed."

John continued to float, pushed himself forward and stopped at the sight of the slowly cooling down side of the ship, still glowing red from the Slipspace transition.

Cortana sounded pentient. "Well... some of us made it... I think we jumped, but... it collapsed when we were in slipspace."

John turned and floated back to the bay and entered Cyro 2.

"But you did it. Truth and the Covenant, the Flood..."

John examined the AI terminal, decided it was fit, and plugged Cortana in. Her hologram appeared, and for a second, she looked like a normal AI. No signs of torture on High Charity, the rampancy flooding her thoughts.

"It's finished." She'd said exactly the same thing after Alpha Halo.

Turning off his flashlight, John considered it. "Cortana..."

She re-appeared.

John shook his head slowly. "No. It's never over." Placing his rifle on a rack, he examined the cryotubes.

Cortana said, "I'll drop a beacon, but it'll be a while before anyone finds us." She paused, wondering weather to say it, then said, "Years, even."

Joh clambered into a cryotube. Cortana watched him sadly. "I'll miss you."

Sometimes she had a flash of emotion, real emotion that she had picked up in her rampancy. But this... Was simply Cortana.

John his last look around that he would take in years. "Wake me. When you need me."

The cryotube hissed shut.

**Hello! This will be different for once. An attempt at civilian life, strangely. It sure doesn't sound like one... But you'll get it. And plenty of action. And please R&R. It's common courtesy.**

**Kimjel, out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**11 July 2554, Time (ANOMOLY), Harvest System**

John was happy. He was on earth and at _his _home and he was with his other SPARTANS, in peacetime. A time that they could begin to start living like other humans.

Looking around, he saw Fred, Linda, and... Kelly. His best friends.

They were his teammates. His friends. He -

"Chief!"

Cortana's voice brought him out of his swirling, cryo-addled dreams.

"Can you hear me?"

For a second, Cortana accessing John's vitals, saw a spike in John's systems. Then they slowed as John ripped himself of his happy dream.

The cryotube opened slowly, and John clambered out. His skin burned, and he tried to banish it behind him.

"Cortana?"

Cortana's holo-figure nodded.

"Chief, I managed to get the nav-controls semi-back online."

John cocked his head on one side. "And...? We going home?" Maybe that hadn't just been a dream...

Cortana displayed a glittering ball of glass in a screen. "Harvest."

John frowned. "...Harvest?" The covenant had glassed that system, Green Hills, Biko and Second Base a long time ago."

Cortana pointed a lucient finger at one part. "About a eighth of this planet has been terraformed or somehow regrown."

John examined the picture. It was bad quality, as the ship was barely intact, but something that did look like...

"How did we get here?" John asked. Harvest was at least a few million lightyears from Installation 4B and the Ark.

Cortana frowned. "I don't know. We seemed to have jumped randomly into the Milky Way."** (Mendiciant Bias's job, geddit?)**

"Can you take us there?"

Cortana frowned. "Possibly. But there is a problem."

John frowned. "...what?"

Cortana waved a finger towards the bay. "Welcome crew."

* * *

"Unidentified UNSC Ship, Sir!"

The young man began tapping frantically at a keyboard. His captain looked up at the viewscreen. "Saw her already, crewman. Standby to go to battle stations."

The crewman, obviously a freshman, tapped a command nervously. "Yes sir."

_"Attention all personell. Stand by to go to battle stations. Prep the groundside MAC."_

The Colonel frowned. Half of a UNSC Charon-Class Frigate, ready to fall to pieces. It could have been floating around in space since the last action here, decades ago, but somehow it didn't fit together.

"Groundside MAC cannon is ready to fire, sir."

The Colonel looked at his team. He issued his orders quickly.

"Wallace, keep the MAC at full charge. Hudson, get a plasma fireteam and put them in vacuum suits and dropships."

The two junior officers saluted. "Sir, yes sir!"

Hudson took the initiative first, suiting up in a vacuum suit and readying his Covenant-captured plasma pistol and an out-dated MA2B. Then he walked down to the hangar with a squad.

Examining the Pelicans, he noticed that one still had two HE ANVIL-II rockets left and a 60mm nose mounted chain gun, albeit low on ammo. Best of all, the armour was higher than substandard. He had learned from sad experience to be better safe than sorry.

Mounting the pilot's seat, he tried not to let his fear and apprehension show. Because his team was, and he didn't think that was a good thing.

* * *

"Chief."

The Spartan watched the rapidly approaching Pelican from the hangar bay. It didn't look to good.

"Cortana?"

She sounded concerned, suprisingly. "I recommend you keep a low profile till you know who you're facing."

John frowned. "Facing...?"

Cortana pondered that for a second. "Anyway, it won't do to let them know you're Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra 117.

John sighed. "Whatever you say." It wasn't smart to talk back to Cortana.

Firing his thruster pack, he entered a dorm and found a closet full of vacuum suits. Finding the largest one that looked like it was made for an ODST - John almost winced at that - was hard. He could hear bumps as the Pelican docked with the _Dawn_.

Entering a sealed shower cubicle, he half pressurized it with his oxygen reserves in his MNJOLNIR suit.

"You do realize," said Cortana, now from his helmet speakers, "that that suit is too small for you?"

John smacked the general area of his implants. "Cortana, I've had enough."

She fell silent, and he began to dress.

She was right, it was tight. He filled the oxygen tanks and stowed the individual parts of MNJOLNIR in a crate and added a few MREs.

Mentally noting to vent his anger on Cortana later, he quickly shoved his crate with him to the engine room and hesitated.

There was a sense of deja vu about it.

A semi destroyed ship, him in the engine room, grenade in hand. The Pillar of Autumn.

"You know," Cortana said conversationally into his COM, "You've been pausing alot recently."

John mused over that. Yes, he was getting to sentimental. An effect of destroying too many things.

He toyed for a second with the Plasma Grenade. He would be possibly _killing_ his fellow species. Ironically, created as an anti-insurrectinist machine, he'd only killed two people, being ODST's.

Sliding the grenade home, he floated quickly back to the bay door. It was open, and he saw a few men in vacuum suits.

Men.

The last people he'd ever seen was Johnson and Miranda.

Shoving his sentimentallity down deep, he snuck past them, shoved the crate into the back of the dropship, and got into the drivers seat.

What scripted all of his response? The men were definately not UNSC, they carried outdated UNSC weapons and plasma. And the Pelican was in pretty bad shape too.

The men themselves were... shifty. No, that was the wrong word.

So he decided to leave it to this. He'd blow up the Pelican close to the ground and drop in.

That didn't hsppen.

The second he'd started the motor, one of the men entered the hangar bay with a crate.

John fed more fuel to the engines furiously.

Giving cry that pierced the COM, the man raised a plasma grenade and primed it, waving it in the air.

John spun the dropship reluctantly. This was the first time he'd willingly, killed a human.

Just as he hit the atmosphere of the semi-glassed Harvest and began plowing through the dense clouds of the nuclear winter, a result of Covenant glassing, the _Forward Unto Dawn _detonated in a nuclear fireball and the first military casualtes since the Harvest Campaign in 2531 took place.

And they were not going to be the last.

**This was a dumb chapter. I'm feeling a sort of semi-writers block. Please R&R, it's simple courtesy. I'm holding two competitions on this story about two or three chapters in, stay tuned. Plus, Kelly is returning as the submain character. However, this is not a romance.**

**Kimjel, out. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**11 July 2554, Time 1304 Hours, Glassfield 2E, Harvest System, Planet Harvest.**

John rocketed towards the ground at terminal velocity.

"Overpressurize your hydrostatic gel," Cortana buzzed in his ear. "I'll take care of the rest!"

John punched in a code into his vacuum suit padding and felt the armour squeeze around him, jabbing into him. He was used to pain, and shrugged off the thousands of tiny knives jabbing into him from all sides.

Focusing on the swirling snow and shining glass under him, he tucked himself into a ball and slammed into the white snow.

The world swam in, out, and through a long tunnel, he heard Cortana's voice.

"...Chief..."

"Can you hear me..."

John opened his eyes, squeezed them shut and looked around. "Cortana?"

Mentally, he was thankful that the vacuum suit he had taken probably had belonged to an ODST, their vacuum suits were designed to hit hard and they were taking no risk whatsoever.

Standing up, he saw his MA5C lying in the snow, a crumpled wreck. It looked like the 7.62 ammo had exploded on impact.

Checking himself over, he discovered an M6D in his belt. Good, that would be handy.

Looking around, he saw the crate where his armour and Cortana resided. His armour was probably damaged, if not destroyed. He should have activated his armour lock and come in that way. At least it was functional enough to house Cortana and his helmet speakers.

Opening the crate, he slipped Cortana's chip out of the helmet slot and checked over the armour. It was fairly functional, except for one thing - the fusion pack was damaged. John checked it to make sure it wasn't leaking radiation, the shoved it and MNJOLNIR into the crate again. 13 million dollars worth of technology. Pointless now.

"Chief."

"Cortana?" This could be bad. She sounded all business now.

"John." He took note of the fact that she called him John, not 'Chief'. "I need you to shut me down. There's nothing I can do right now. For me to function right now is simply to tell me to continue into rampancy."

"Rampancy?" The naval techs had told him little, but not much. Basically, after time, a smart AI got too smart for it's own good, tried to go on a killing spree, and 'died'.

"Cortana, we don't kill teammates. This is the SPARTAN project."

The AI sighed, complementary of Doctor Halsey. John wondered where she was, if she was still alive - - -

"I didn't say terminate me. I said shut me down. Take my chip."

Reluctantly, John took it, noting its luminous blue and purple.

"Before I go, I'll set you up. I've managed to hack into what remains of Harvest's network and I've discovered a human colony here."

John frowned. "Wasn't Harvest gla -"

Cortana interrupted impatiently. "Partially. I need to hurry, John. Every second counts."

John resigned himself back and listened to her.

"There are two possibilities here. I'm not detecting any UNSC servers here so I have to assume that this is a civilian population."

"And? You need to 'set me up'. Why can't I just go home?"

Cortana went on. "No. Two possibilities, that this is a UNSC civilian colony. No UNSC presence. Or this could be an insurrectionist hideout."

John frowned. "What possible wrong could they do? Wouldn't they just send me back to Earth, to get rid of me?"

"No." Cortana was persistent. "They'd kill you, or at the very least take you hostage."

John nodded, albeit slowly. "All right. What are you going to do?"

"Say that you're an ODST," whispered Cortana, pushing here way into the networks. "Left for dead by the UNSC. That you want to stay here."

John saw the sense in this. It would explain his large build, the ODST vacuum suit, and –

"Oh, Cortana. I need a bit of cash too."

Cortana sighed and thrusted the last reserves of her dying systems into the bank systems. Bombarding the slow password systems, she slipped in and added some money – amounts didn't matter now – into the new account of John Symth, passcode Spartan-117, DOB 11 July 2511.

"…got it," she said. She checked the newly made account account. There, 300,000 standard credits.

"Now. Freeze me," she said. "Take the tiny tube of nanites from the chip, slot it in. Leave it there."

Nanites, standard UNSC micro AIs, floated in semiliquid 'soup'. They were designed for multiple tasks inside standard AI's. These were for freezing them.

John took the glass tube and slotted it into Cortana. The blue and purple slowly died. Cortana ceased functioning.

John sighed. He was now alone.

* * *

**11 July, Time [ANOMALY], Starfield in Outer Territories**

"It seems to easy," Kelly grumbled, poking her MA2D at a pillow in her bunk. "And at the same time... Like some hitch or snag we haven't considered."

Linda scratched her head. "I don't like it. No recon, no MNJOLNIR. John always used to -"

Fred frantically made a hand movement, but it was too late; the damage had already been done.

"What?" hissed Kelly.

Linda lapsed into silence. The SPARTANs knew what this was about, Kelly was still a little sensitive when it came to John. This was usually characterized by a tantrum, and a hour-long mood session.

Kelly turned around and disappeared from the bridge of the ONI prowler. Fred and Linda watched her go.

Linda rubbed her nose. "...Kelly."

Fred nodded sympathetically. "Linda, don't trouble yourself. You'll just get into more trouble."

"How?" smiled Linda, throwing up her arms in rejection and denial. "We've got a screwed mission, our best Spartan for recon missions is having an emotional breakdown, we're not even allowed to bring MNJOLNIR, and it's supposed to be a 'milk run'."

Fred cracked a smile. At least _one_ person was optimistic, and that was a good thing. Usually he had to be the optimistic one, but now he had to play leader instead of John. Originally, he'd been designated one of the four squad leaders, but John always used to love multitasking, even if it meant someone else is left jobless.

"No, but really." Linda was serious. "I don't know how much longer - " she jerked a thumb towards the door, where Kelly had left " - this can go on."

Fred bit his lip. Really, he hadn't paid too much attention to Kelly's combat efficieny because whenever she broke down, he was on the verge of following suit. Linda, their lone wolf, was the most controlled. As leader... Fred sighed. He'd never be able to live up to John's standards. At least he could distract her.

Standing, he said to Linda, "I'll go make her happier. You sync with the AI and get some co-ordinates for possible Insurrectionist stands."

He left the room and Linda found herself very much alone on the bridge.

**Blue Team returns! Dun dun Dun!**

**If you're informed correctly, you'll know that they were conveniently rescued just after Halo 3, thus staying out of the way. And Halsey is imprisoned above Ivanhoff Research Station by Margaret Paragnovski (one day I'll get her name right). This story has no links with the recent release of Halo 4, and no connection with it whatsover. Please R&R for each chapter. Kimjel, out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**11 July 2554, Time 1543 hours, Outskirts of Glassfield 2, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

John had had enough of walking through the brittle, sharp glass and freezing snow banks, when he came across a road.

It was obviously well maintained, as a power grid ran under it, warming it and melting snow that landed. John, half frozen, could feel the heat radiating out.

Looking down the road, he saw a few buildings - first human contact in a few years - and began to walk down towards them.

As he approached, it became apparent that the buildings were deserted, but only temporarily. The electricity was still on, the doors was unlocked, the truck stop had a few drips that hadn't yet frozen, and the small Hydrogen-Water fuel station stood open. John looked around for a few minutes and continued on.

A slight vibration in the air first notified himself of the lorry on approach. He stepped off the road and waved to gain the driver's attention.

The vehicle slowed as it approached him, and stopped. The driver leaned out.

John knew you could learn a lot from people even by their looks. The driver's hair and beard we unkempt, a cheap cigar hung out of his mouth, and a dirty cap that once may have had a company name on it hung on his head. But he was smiling.

"Afternoon. Looking for a lift?"

John was tongue tied for a second, he hadn't communicated with civilians on broader terms for a while.

"Yeah. Thanks."

The driver swung a grubby hand at the seat next to him. "Hop in. Shove that crate in the back."

John hefted the heavy crate easily and lowered it into the back. He turned, and seeing the driver looking at him oddly, remembered that he had to play a normal person, not a SPARTAN for now.

As he clambered into the cab, the driver looked at him quizzically. "Military man?"

John nodded. "I was part of the UNSC ODST program and left for dead in space."

The older man nodded sympathetically. "Eh, it happens too many times. My son - we used to live in the far Outer Colonies - joined the army. Still MIA."

John winced. The UNSC Defence Force simply marked some people MIA when they had been confirmed dead. To be kinder on devestated families. It didn't help... especially if you knew they were decieving you. All John's SPARTAN brothers and sisters, marked Wounded in Action or Missing in Action, apart from Will, Fred, Linda and Kelly. But John had no clue on their whereabouts.

The gears crunched and the truck lurched into motion.

The truck driver tried to keep up a conversation, and John tried not to respond to it much. He was too preocuppied.

Suddenly, the driver growled something under his breath, threw the brakes on and growled at John, "Get out."

"Pardo - What?"

The man gestured down the road. "Patrol. Hurry. This is illegal."

John bailed out. The last thing he needed was a run-in with civilian police. Grabbing his crate of the back, he extended the handle and began lugging it along the road. With a crash of gears, the lorry rumbled down the road, towards a few buildings in the distance.

With little choice, the SPARTAN began to jog down towards the buildings, crate bumping along. He remembered to slow himself considerably to look like a normal person. Approaching the buildings, he saw a circular carpark like building - except there were two guards and a industrial size elevator.

As John approached the pedestrian entry, a guard stopped him.

"There's a toll."

John was taken aback. UNSC servicemen...

No, he'd pay, on second thoughts. Bashing his ID and details into a holopanel, 300,000 credits became 299,990.

Entering, John noted the absence of motor vehicles - and the traffic arrows leading to the lift. Which went down... Was this some warehouse? But why the bill? It didn't fit together... Like one of Chief Mendez's missions.

He descended into Harvest.

* * *

"Kelly?"

No answer.

She could be anywhere, the more agile and smaller SPARTAN could hide anywhere to brood, the last time she'd bunkered herself, it had taken a direct threat of a court-martial from Margaret Parangosky to come out. Not like Dr. Halsey, the they all had... A sort of respectful 'love' for her... No, love was the wrong word. But Halsey always respected their rights and themselves as people, not militaristic automatons. And they respected her back for that.

A whisper of steel, a flash of light, and a SPARTAN in MNJOLNIR armour collided against the wall. Sparks flew from the energy shield.

"Kelly?"

The SPARTAN fully emerged. It was Adriana. Fred looked at her.

"Seen Kelly?"

Adriana depolarized her visor and Fred could see her grim smile. "Yeah. I'm guessing she's on this ship."

Fred shook his head. "Seriously, Aridriana. Where."

It was a statement, not a question. She shrugged. "She entered the Hangar bay, then left when she saw me. On a mood again?"

Fred nodded morosely. "She needs to see a psychologist."

Grim laughter. "You do realize," Kelly's voice came in, "I'm monitoring you're conversation."

The COM link snapped off and Fred grabbed his COM frantically. "Kelly? Kelly? I've lost her!"

The link was gone. Adriana shook her head. "You won't find her that way. Just let her get over it. It's good for her."

Fred was about to contradict her when he remembered Kelly was a girl. Girls' minds worked... differently. He sighed.

Yes, so leaving Kelly alone is what she wanted most. And was it the right thing?

Fred continued searching. For some reason he didn't dare simply scan the ship and pull her out of hiding. Kelly was... taunting him, and he was going to face her challenge.

Entering the engine room, he investigate the niche where she usually holed up. She'd been there a few minutes ago, as a semi-unwrapped MRE and drink still lay on the ground, but no Kelly, or no indication where she'd gone.

Turning on the SQUADCOM so Kelly would hear, he shouted, "I give up!" and moved his hand to his belt to grab the holopanel that connected him to the ship AI.

Thump.

Fred spun around at the light footfall. Kelly had just landed from the roof. Tears, but not of sadness where in her eyes. In her hand, she held a PDA.

"Kelly," he frowned, advancing towards her. This was going too -

"No," she grinned, smile written across her face. A broad grin, she held out the datapad.

Fred gasped.

**Mini cliffhanger. Sorry the update took so long. Anyone suprised about Gray Team being rescued? No details, just picked up mid-early 2553.**

**Please R&R. Kimjel, out.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

**11 July 2554, Time 1712 hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

John gasped in amazement.

It was reminiscient of the huge open space on board the _Unyeilding_ _Hierophant,_ except it was human made.

It was all carved out out of glass, probably blown open, evidential from all the melted glass on the walls, but the roof was Titanium A, looking highly suspiciously like it had been salvaged off a UNSC Paris Class Frigate.

Cortana was right. These people weren't like UNSC civilians... at all.

All the buildings were concrete, light radiated from a lens in the roof, shining the light of the setting sun into the subterranian city.

John looked down and saw black - what could be a bottom, but it was too dark and too many platforms got in the way.

Buzzing around the city were random aircraft, floating bicycles with anit-grav pods attatched, a few derelict Pelicans, few heliopters and hovercraft. A grav beam descended from the wall, and a constant stream of light and water rushed up it.

John pressed his hands on the sides of the glass elevator. The further he went down, the darker and scarier the place became. It became slowly colder, he saw fumes of he-didn't-like-to-know what floating around, the people walking around seemed dirtier and sicker, and the buildings were covered in muck and graffiti. The underworld of the city.

There was a ping and the elevator stopped. John got out and found himself in the mud and waste lying on the street. Occasionally a banana peel or scrap paper or plastic rattled onto the floor from above. Two hovercraft were busy picking up rubbish and incinerating them.

A loud sound rang out. It could have been anything from a gunshot to an explosion.

John wandered the streets of the underworld. Bright lights hissed loudly, a nightclub was open and obnoxious music blasted out. Cheap pubs and casinos blared noises and fumes.

John looked for a way up.

As he reached the other side of the city, about two kilometres, he found a security post and an elevator up to the second level. John decided that the higher you were, the better. Quickly slotting his bank details into the guard post, he slipped past the boom gate and rode the elevator upwards. You had to pay do do _anything _here, he thought.

The next level was better, less dirt and a few old apartments. There was a teenager in one corner with a spraycan writing some obscene word on the wall, another two hanging around a "no loitering" sign and two others playing with a lighter and some chemicals. John touched the M6D at his belt to reassure himself.

Paying again - he was going to run out of money if this went on - he skipped several levels. Now it was much better. Glass tubes and catwalks ran across the roof, apparently free (for once, John thought, exasperated). There were few apartments here, but mainly houses, and a network of alleyways that looked suspiciously like reinforced hallways from Covenant ships and/or Halcyon Class Cruisers - that hexagonal shape.

John decided this was good enough, and browsed around a bit. This level had a fix-it shop, a small mall with a few shops, and most importantly, vegitation. The first he'd seen in ages, a few small trees and bushes.

Entering the mall, he looked around. There was some real-estate office that looked like it was never used, a fruit and vegetable stall, a dirty pharmacy, a supermarket and a newsagency.

John stopped and thought. What was he trying to accomplish? Set up a new life here? He wouldn't be getting home anytime soon, so he decided to set himself up.

There was no-one in the real-estate office. John went inside and looked at houses for a few minutes and left. He'd rather see them first-hand. Noting the position of the three houses for sale in this region, he went out.

The first house was pretty much a shack. It was clean and firm, but old and open. John entered one of the alleyways and was surprised.

The right hand side of the wall had completely been removed, and now it looked like a street. Four unused houses stood, one of them the one for sale. John looked at it.

It was a two story, squat building, with an artificial garden. Going in, he found it nice and compact, made of concrete, like everything here - not unlike the SPARTAN quarters on Reach.

The bottom story consisted of a bedroom and a sitting room. In the bedroom, there was a bed, a small couch, and a TV. The floor was vinyl with a carpet. A bookshelf was built into the wall.

In the sitting room, there was a two-person couch, a coffee table, a bookshelf and a large window that could be closed off.

Upstairs, there was a 4 person dining room, a compact kitchen, and a large multipurpose room, walls consisting of TV screens that gave a nice view, as if it was on top story and overlooking the entire settlement. There was a table, a TV and a four person couch. A bathroom lay across it.

John decided it couldn't be much better - cheap, compact and furnished. He went back outside and entered his bank details into the for sale box. There was one outside every house, and John guessed that people often moved.

John went into the back yard. There was a real garden, light coming from outside down a glass shaft, light reflected off the walls and into the garden. There was a chair, which he dragged out front.

A boy was sitting next to his house, leaning on the wall eyes closed.

John frowned. Where had he come from?

"John?" the boy asked.

John was taken aback, how had the he known his name?

The boy got up. "Asher," he said, holding out his hand.

John frowned. "...Uhh..." He hated civilian confrontations.

The aforenamed Asher laughed. "I was watching you type in your bank details."

Narrowing his eyebrows, John growled, "My password and all -"

Asher cut him off with a laugh and wave of his hand, as if they were old friends. "Yes, John Smyth, Passcode "Spartan-117"". He cocked his head on one side and gave a knowing grin.

John felt something in his belly pop. If he the kid understood what really he implied...

"Oh come on," said the kid. "Your fingers. I know how a keyboard works, you type a bit slowly. I can see where your fingers hit the keyboard."

John tried to cover his mistake up. "Yeah, I'm a fan of the UNSC Spartan project. Former ODST." He hoped to change the conversation to ODSTs...

Asher looked at him quizzically. "Yeah...?" He shook his head with a ruefull grin. "On an insurrectionist settlement? You're new here, aren't you."

Panic swelled up inside John. The boy thought _fast,_ really fast, and John was having a hard time making up an abili. And he'd just blundered... Asher had confirmed that this was an insurrectionist settlement.

"And last time I checked, Spartans and ODSTs weren't on really good terms..." His voice trailed away.

Oh great, John thought. The ODST topic had come up... Except this kid knew too much. Way too much. And came to conclusions using evidence that no-one would think of investigating, yet were suprisingly obvious.

"So, I won't split on you. What's the truth?"

John sighed. "You know too much."

Asher's grin widened. "Is that a bad thing?"

"One day..." John grunted, "You'll get too smart for your own good."

He stopped, realizing he was treating Asher like a friend. Anyway, friends usually knew about you. A lot.

Asher raised his eyebrows. Tell me, he was saying.

John shook his head again as he cracked a rare smile. "I think you've guessed..."

Sitting down, Asher said, "Last time I hacked our network, UNSC news was that you were in a cryotube in the middle of nowhere, hmm?"

John nodded. "Somehow near Harvest."

Suddenly, it came with sudden clarity to John; the kid - Asher - wasn't good at civilian confrontations (well, confrontations in general). That was why the conversation was getting awkward.

"Who exactly are you?" John asked, curious on his new, strange neighbor.

"Asher Ambrose," he said. "I'm one of the hundreds of street orphans on Harvest."

John suddenly felt a wave of pity. Orphaned, like he was. Parents dead, most likely killed in military confrontation.

"And you're my first friend."

_Friend._ John felt that same wave of pity again. The kid had no friends, alone in the world. And an orphan.

John smiled at him. "Come on in," he invited Asher. And he opened the door.

**Hello again! And I'm starting a competition now over the review and/or PM system, so guests can compete. **

**The competition is: I want 5 chapters concerning John fitting into life here. Just ideas, no actual story. Entries must be no more than 100 words in max, and indirect everthing. Winners get to create their own minor OC's. Entries must involve civilian life, John, Asher, and light humour. Please don't make it too humourous, as that isn't the point. BTW, spoilers are available if you PM me about Asher... if you don't get his character right, your entry is booted. **

**Please R&R otherwise if you haven't by now. It's simple courtesy. Kimjel, out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**11 July, Time [ANOMALY], Starfield in Outer Territories**

"You sure, Kelly?" Fred asked.

"I'm sure," she smiled.

He shook his head slowly. "Don't get your hopes too high..."

"It makes sense, though, doesn't it?" Kelly questioned.

Fred shrugged. "Well, yeah..."

Kelly turned tail and ran to the bridge. Fred watched her go. He'd never seen her so excited in a few years.

He accepted the inevitable and walked after her.

As he entered the bridge, Kelly was practically dancing on the consoles. There was a fervor in her work, she worked with passion, a desire.

The AI was busy plotting a course for Harvest, where they'd picked up the UNSC emergency beacon. It was the same one that they'd received on Onyx.

"Jumping in 3... 2... 1..."

There was a swirl and the prowler's slipspace matrices triggered...

...and UNSC _Gray Wolf_ re-appeared a few light years away, next to Harvest.

Kelly sprinted to the armoury to suit up for EVA.

Linda's arm touched Fred's shoulder. He turned.

"Don't be upset," she said quietly.

Fred nodded impassively.

Kelly raced through MNJOLNIR, her matte bodysuit was donned, plates on bit by bit, stupid robots aren't fast enough... Nothing was fast enough for Kelly.

Slipping on her helmet, she activated her oxygen reserves and ran two diagnostics. Armour, vacuum proof.

Gray Team, Jai, Adriana and Mike, watched her coolly from the safety of off the diagnostic platform. Mike was distracted and sort of fiddling with his PDA or destroying some electronics, Kelly didn't know. But Jai and Adriana had depolarized their visors, and were watching her quizzically.

"Kelly..." began Jai, then stopped. She cast him a look, then continued her diagnostics.

Jai shut his mouth, cast a knowing glance at Adriana, and nodded meaningfully.

She nodded and winked back.

Mike was not so unobtrusive. "Uh, Kelly..." he began.

Adriana punched him.

Shaking his head, Jai went out to find Fred.

He met the other SPARTAN-II at a convienient spot, hiding in the observation bay, watching Kelly.

Fred gave Jai a impassive nod, and gestured to Kelly.

Jai sat next to him. "Sir -"

Fred cut him off. "Jai, if this conversation is going to use correct protocol, you might as well go away."

Then he turned and faced the glass.

"Fred?"

With a sigh, Fred turned. "I know."

Jai nodded. "She's acting so...strange these days." Neither of them needed to know what _she_ meant.

Fred shook his head. "You don't know what it's like to loose a friend - your best friend - almost find him, loose him again..."

"Fred."

"Yeah?"

Jai's voice was firm. "I do know."

Fred frowned. "...?"

"Who do you think?" Jai growled, exasperated. "_Her_. Adriana."

Scratching his scalp, Fred said, "...when...?"

Jai suddenly shut up. "Classified. During OPERATION: RED FLAG."

Fred broke into what he hoped resembled a grin. "Since when did we hold any junk with... ONI... _classified_?" He spat the word out to express his distaste for ONI.

Jai grinned. "Good point..." his face clouded. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't wish to discuss it."

With an annoyed groan, Fred stood. "What's with all that _sir_ stuff again..."

Jai didn't look repentant. "I'm sorry, _sir_."

Both men burst out laughing.

* * *

**(A/N: This is an edited version of an entry by reaper41. Thanks to Reaper.**

**13 July, 2554, 1148 Hours Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

John walked through one of the "sidewalks" in the subterranean city. The sun was up and the roof was alight with blue fire from the star.

In a city like this, one couldn't escape from pretty much anything.

Asher had warned him about this - the boy was now a guest at John's house on an indefinate basis. John hadn't realized the extent of the warning till now.

John wished he'd brought his M6D with him. But he'd forgone it because there was potential trouble with owning a UNSC contraband weapon. Usually only security forces carried them... Another of Asher's insistent warnings about the settlement.

It was ironic, after thirty years of fighting for humanity, he'd settled down in humanity and found them even less trustworthy than the Covenant. John wasn't sure whether to trust _any _of his own species... Except for his fellow SPARTANS.

Risking a quick glance behind him, the derelict hovercraft was still following him. About five shirtless young men were inside, smoking some kind of John-didn't-really-like-to-know-what and fiddling with old assault rifles and SMGs.

They'd been following him for... A few hours, now.

He spotted a security guard standing by the 'down' elevator. He walked over to him, finding some comfort there.

The hovercraft slid into an alley, but John guessed that it was watching him.

"Going down?" asked the guard irritably.

John was taken by surprise. "Ahh, uh -"

"Get in," said the guard. John knew better than to contradict a direct order, and went in. The elevator slid down to a lower level.

_You idiot, John,_ he thought to himself, _now it's even easier for them!_

He patted his pockets - nothing there but a spent M6D shell. He checked the satchel he was wearing - there, a few live M6D bullets. Maybe he could lure them...

There was a hiss and the hovercraft touched down a few metres away. John pretended noy to notice and -

"Hands up, Mister."

* * *

"Doors in 3... 2... 1... Breached."

Kelly, Fred and Mike were mounted on flying booster packs. They'd detected life on the planet... And more importantly, the signature of the emergency beacon that Kelly'd picked up on Onyx.

There was a hiss and a roar, the motors started up and booster packs blasted into space.

Kelly swooped down towards Harvest. "I've got a electronic signature," she said over the COM, and fired a lock-on probe towards the ground. Swerving, she re-checked her co-ordinates for where _Forward Unto Dawn_ should have been.

It was. Her co-ordinates hadn't played her false.

A broad grin swept over Kelly's features as she swung off her booster frame and docked on the broken side, Fred and Mike following.

Loading her MA5D - there still might be some Flood on the ship - she entered into the breach.

Just then, there was a thump.

"Schematics," hissed Fred.

Mike fiddled with a space-rated datapad, then pointed up. "Engine room. It's from the engine room." Kelly could sense his frown.

Mike took out a hi-powered vacuum blowtorch, grappled the roof and began burning a hole in the roof.

"...There's something wrong about is whole thing," he grunted.

Suddenly he spun and screamed, "Go! Get off this ship!"

Dropping to the ground, he sprinted towards the booster packs. Kelly grabbed the stunned Fred and threw him onto his booster back and powered the engine. "Mike -"

Suddenly there was a roar that outdid all noises, a scream from Mike, and the ship exploded into a nuclear fireball. Kelly and Fred's booster packs went spinning into space.

Mike was dead.

* * *

"What?" John growled as the unruly teenagers leveled their SMGs at his head. Even his reinforced bones wouldn't stand up to a shot from a gun. He cursed himself for not listening to Asher's advice.

John had a sinking feeling, Asher had told him that this gang was the bane of all the settlement, they roved the underworld. And particularly targeting newbies.

"I said, hands up!" growled the first teenager, driving his gun's barrel into John's temple. Another unsheathed a long bladed kukri or machete or whatever, chuckling to himself evilily.

Reluctantly, John raised his hands.

The teenagers began searching him, one grabbed his satchel and looked inside. Throwing out some MRE's with contempt, he discovered the M6D shells.

John's eyes widened. No...

One of the older gangsters grabbed the shells, and pegged them into the wall. They exploded and the bullets crashed into a window, richoteing off the pavement.

"Yeah, hilarious," John sighed. Nothing to do but...

Fight.

Lashing out with his foot, he caught the one holding the gun in the stomach. Swiping out his legs with his other foot, he ripped the gun out of his hand. There was a snap of bone and a shout of pain as the man unceremoniously fell on his face in the dirt.

John waved the gun in the air. "Who's next?"

The gangies began laughing.

"You realize," said the first, "that that gun isn't loaded."

Too late, John realized his mistake. He should have taken out the one with the machete -

The teenager lunged with the large knife. John sidestepped easily and caught a punch in the ribs. The man's fist bounced off John's reinforced bones and would probably be bruised the next day.

Gunfire erupted from one of the SMG's, and one bullet slashed past John's ribs.

_Spartans were made as offensive weapons, not defensive_, John told himself. _Time to take a chance._

John dived forward, tackled the one that shot him, slammed a fist into the shoulder - the point of balance.

The man practically did a backflip and crashed into the ground several metres away.

John seized the SMG.

"Drop it," said three different voices.

Two revolvers aimed at his head, another pressed into his back.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," said one.

Then the world exploded.

* * *

_"Kelly!"_

"Fred!"

The world echoed around in Kelly's helmet. MNJOLNIRs COMM must have been malfunctioning...

No... She was malfunction. Kelly sqeezed her eyes open. She was spinning slowly in space, still attached to her booster packs.

What had happened?

Slowly and painfully, she turned her head to the _Dawn -_

Oh, no.

The ship was torn into a million pieces of nuclear fallout.

"Fred! Mike!" she screamed, and fired her booster pack into the wreckage.

"Kelly?" Fred crackled through the COM.

She spun her pack around. There he was. Kelly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fred depolarized his visor. "Kelly..." he squeezed his eyes shut and popped them open, then rubbed his head. "What happened?"

"I... *kof* don't know..." she wheezed. She depolarized her own visor.

Suddenly Fred took out a small gun-like scanner and scanned the area. "Mike... He's dead."

Suddenly it all made sense to Kelly. The ship had exloded. _The_ ship. _Forward Unto Dawn_.

Kelly turned tail and fired her booster pack away. It flew into space and detonated against piece of rubble. Fred could clearly see her stricken face. Then he realized...

John.

He'd been on the ship.

Then... Fred couldn't come to grips with this. John. The only constant in the world. Blue Team Leader.

John was dead.

* * *

Asher's foot slammed into the back of the first man. His revolver went off and blew a hole in a nearby lampost.

Grabbing his neck, Asher grappled with the man, twisted his neck, and hit a pressure point.

He dropped to the ground.

The second and third man raised their guns. Asher grabbed the second man's hand, twisted it, almost breaking the joint, and aimed it in a awkward position at the third man's left calf.

With a shout of pain, the second man squeezed the trigger instintively. The gun went off and stabbed into the third man's leg.

A knife came down from above, Asher twisted it, and using all his strength and the other man's strength, flipped the arm, going for the weak spot. The knife wielder head butted the asphalt hard, mainly through his own strength.

There was a painful thud as the head connected.

Two more gun barrels aimed at Asher. Asher dodged the first shot but -

John took the last man out.

The rest of the gang, more than half their number unconscious or delirious in pain, scampered off.

Asher jerked a thumb upwards.

"That was a dumb move. C'mon. Let's go up."

As the two ascended the elevator to the story that John's house was, John asked, "How'd you learn to fight like that?"

Asher frowned slightly and flexed an arm. It wasn't overly muscled. John noted that it wasn't exactly strong. "Me? It's an instinctive thing."

It was John's turn to frown. "Instinctive...?"

Asher nodded several times. "I don't fight using my muscles..."

Suddenly his hand snapped into a new position. It was so fast John could hardly track it. "For me..."

John already new the answer. "You're fast. Faster than Kelly."

"Kelly?"

John nodded his head the security guard on the floor they were apporaching. "Later."

"Well -" Asher seemed like he didn't think about this much. "I can think really easily in a situation. That's why I hate walking. Too much time to think."

Suddenly it dawned on John. Kelly's so called, "SPARTAN Time". Enhanced reflexes let the SPARTAN mind move much faster than ordinary, seemingly, "turning on the slo-mo".

Asher was a very distinct individual. Very distinct.

The elevator reached the 9th level and dinged. John hadn't paid to go higher than that, and the elevator system was run very carefully.

The two of them stepped out. After they were out earshot, Asher went on. "I don't use my own muscles. I borrow everyone elses."

John understood that. It was obvious during the fight. Asher manipulated the attacking force and usually guided it into a painful position - shooting someone else, bashing your head against the ground.

As they entered the alley where John lived, John wished he hadn't said that all about his and his fellow Spartans. He knew he'd have a nightmare tonight.

**Yes! Thank you all fans! **

**That took a while, and the biggest chapter yet. reaper41 now gets to create his/her very own minor OC (it's up to him he/she actuall does, but I digress).**

**If the Blue Team part was confusing, I apogize. Time is a bit out, that was just when John blew up the Dawn when the Innies were on board. And he killed Mike and almost Kelly and Fred in the process (see chapter 2, I think)**

**Don't forget, the competition is still open and please enter. Above all, please R&R. It's helpful, especially to me as the new author. Thanks again to all fans!**

**Kimjel, out.**


	7. Chapter 7

"_Kelly!_"

John watched, frozen in space and time. Slitherings behind him alerted him of the Flood infection forms attacking... but he didn't care.

Fred, Linda and Will were struggling on the ground, at least five infection forms on each of them. They were screaming, John was struggling against the invisible shield stopping him.

Kelly - Kelly was running, calling to John for help, he was trying to help her but he couldn't...

Two infection forms jumped on her, she twisted and popped them both, and suddenly was skidding across the ground after a blow from Fred.

The combat form that had been Fred growled and swung his arm, shattering Kelly's leg. She screamed in shock and John saw blood spurt from her leg as the bone shattered and ripped through her skin.

John tried to run to her - held back by the invisible barrier.

Kelly was now screaming to him for help, he was battling to go and save her...

The infection form stabbed through her chest. She tried to rip it off, and another two infection forms converged on her. The combat form - John tried not to think of it as Fred anymore - kept stabbing her with a sharpened hunk of bone sticking out of his arm.

Kelly stopped screaming. John knew she was dead, but kept fighting to save -

The combat form that had been Kelly attacked.

* * *

**14 July, 2554, 0312 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Asher rolled out of his bed the moment John started thrashing around. Throwing his door open, he grabbed the wire he kept safeguarded to pick the lock on John's door.

John was shouting the entire time, and Asher pushed the door open and ran inside.

Now knowing John's habits, he sidestepped as an involutary kick from John came his way. Grabbing the kicking leg, Asher combined all John's motion into a flip.

The ex-SPARTAN flipped off the bed and slammed back onto it, and...

* * *

...John woke up.

"John!_ John! John! Johnjohnjohnjohn..._"

Kelly's voice faded out of his consciousness and Asher's concerned face appeared at his side.

"...Asher?"

Asher lifted John's head. "It's OK... Was it a dream?"

John, still shaken, shook his head. "Yeah... I think so."

Asher nodded sympathetically. "I know. I've experienced them before."

Looking at him quizzically, John asked, "What?"

Asher waved his hand, as if to keep the dream from returning. "No... Long time ago."

Nodding, John sat up. "I -"

He stopped and exhaled deeply. But he didn't go on.

"Go on," said Asher, jogging him with his elbow. John sighed.

"You know how I said something about Kelly when we we coming home?"

Asher nodded. "Kelly. She's... your best friend, right?"

John frowned. "How do you know?"

A slow grin spread across Asher's features. "You talk like that. She... The way you say it, it's like this concerned air about it. And that's what friends do, care about each other. You were screaming her name. Yeah, it's obvious. Go on."

John sighed. He'd never be able to hide _anything_ from the boy. "Yeah..."

"Spartan?"

John shook his head ruefully. "I'll never be able to hide anything from you... Yes. She's a fellow SPARTAN. She was my best friend."

"You?" Asher asked incredulously. He cocked his head on one side. "I can't imagine you featuring a romance."

John laughed, quietly. "No! Spartans are asexual."

"Yeah, I'll believe that. If that were true I wouldn -"

He cut off suddenly, seeming to remember something.

"What?" John queried.

"Nothing."

John shrugged. "Well. In a manner of speaking. The thyroid impant during our augumentations doubled our muscular and skeletal growth hormones... And also stunted the sexual drive."

Asher considered this for a moment. "Obviously not completely... Spartans can still pass on their genes."

John pursed his lips. "Yeah... How do you know all this stuff? You can't have picked it up from..." he paused, trying to think of where Asher would get his information.

Staring at the ground, Asher muttered, "Private."

Nodding, John understood. He had private things too... Just Asher guessed everything, well, mostly everything.

"Kelly. You were talking about her."

John refocused. "Oh... Her. As I was saying, she was my best friend."

"Was?"

"It'd be lucky if she was alive. Last time I knew of her, she was MIA."

Asher frowned. "So? Most MIA's are lost, but still alive... Aren't they?"

John shook his head slowly and sadly. "To keep up civilian morale, any Spartan killed was listed as MIA or WIA. No KIA."

Thinking for a second, Asher said, "But the war's over... They don't need to lie anymore."

Giving a short, sarcastic bark of laughter, John said, "And the Office of Naval Intelligence is going to let the world know they _lied_ to the public?"

"Good point. Go on."

John talked slowly. "It was after the Fall of Reach... The creator of the SPARTAN program, Dr. Halsey, kidnapped her for an unknown reason."

He stopped and recollected his thoughts. Asher misunderstood it for an emotional pause.

"It's ok, you don't need to tell me this," Asher began, but John stopped him.

"No. It's all right..." John sighed. "All my SPARTAN brothers and sisters. I had my AI, Cortana, hack into ONI databases and check for any records of them. They were all listed MIA."

"So they're dead," Asher put in bluntly.

John looked down and didn't answer.

**Sorry that took ages to come out. Thanks everyone for waiting, here's a Christmas Present to you. Blue Team is in the next one, and now I've finalized the plot for the Dawn series. Competition is now closed. Kimjel, out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 6**

**11 July, Time [ANOMALY], Harvest System, in far orbit around Planet Harvest**

Kelly woke up.

Something was chafing her neck, she felt cold air rushing up past her, and pain exploded all over her body every time she tried to move against the restraints. She foggily tried to rise, thought better of it, and collapsed back against the restraints.

Slowly, as she came to, she realized she was _locked_ into an open cryotube.

Wildly, she looked around. The small room she was in was grubby, untidy, and rather unconventional, after the military life she'd led.

There was a soft chuckle behind her. "You're awake," a voice said.

Kelly tried to speak, but it climaxed in a long stream of coughs.

"Welcome to our facility," went on the voice. A series of footsteps brought the speaker in front of Kelly. It was a middle aged man in a medical suit and mask.

Kelly tried again to say something, and began coughing again, but not before she could get a raspy "...where..." out.

The man nodded. "You're probably confused. This is the insurrectionist deep facility of settlement 3B on planet Harvest. There are several of these scattered around Harvest, mainly underground to escape the nuclear winter that goes on."

Kelly's eyes widened. The last time she'd encountered insurrectionists, she'd had two large battleships and several SPARTAN-II's on her side. Now she only had a handful of those -

"Fred -" began Kelly and instantly went into coughing again.

The man looked at her quizzically. "Fred. I'm not Fred and I don't know anyone called Fred. Oh well..." he stared out the window. "Be prepared to reveal the secrets of ONI and the UNSC publicly tomorrow."

Kelly stared at him, and actually got a sentence out. "Or... What?" she rasped.

The man smiled at her. It wasn't a nice smile, it was a smile that he gave because she had no option.

"You die."

* * *

**14 July, 2554, 0312 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

John was still shaken by the dream. But it wasn't uncommon, so he knew what to do. He took a walk.

Walks were simply basic things usually. But for an unknown reason, they gave John a view of the surroundings, and probably convinced him that his dream was fiction.

John had done this before, and Asher had usually complained - for all the right reasons. This time, however, he didn't back down. "Everyone on this level and the surrounding levels knows you're my friend," he stated, "and that's not a good thing for you. That's why we got attacked yesterday. They were trying you out. They know I can fight."

So John consented to take the boy with him. There was a sense of _deja vu _with Asher in a wierd way that reminded John of _someone_... He just couldn't figure _who_.

Asher had brought a knife and was flipping in in his hands and throwing it in the air. John had asked whether that wasn't asking for trouble, and Asher said it was simply to remind everyone that he could fight.

The two of them were walked around the shopping center and then went up the elevator to the next level and down to the below level and Asher was laughing at a joke that John had made and John was just -

That was when the bullet split Asher's knife in half.

He'd just thrown it into the air and it was at the height of its flip when the crack of an old 99 Sniper Rifle. Instinctively, he dodged to the side, but all he heard was crack and the target - Asher's knife - split in half.

Asher was down on the ground in a fighting stance, and John had found the source of the shot - a man standing on a nearby building.

There was a triplet of shots, all directed at Asher. The boy twisted around the barrel of the gun, letting the bullets ricochet of the pavement, then jumped with half his knife onto the building. Furiously, John followed.

Asher was a blur of flashing moves with the knife. The man standing was slashing equally skilled moves back with a blade on his sniper. Spinnning it like a gravity hammer around his hands, he brought the knifepoint down on Asher's head...

...one moment Asher was there. One moment and he wasn't.

Asher jumped out of the way of the falling rifle, but into the man, dodging both sniper and knife. The two struggled on the ground for a second, but John ripped the man off Asher. In a brute force wrestling competition, Asher's amazing speed and reflexes wouldn't save him.

Asher striped the man of his weapons - a knife and a pistol. He held the pistol to the man and John pulled him off the building, onto the ground.

"Let me go," growled the man. "I have friends in places you don't want to -"

Asher clamped his hand over the man's mouth. "Shut up." Looking him over, a new light came into the boy's eyes. And John didn't like it...

"Hey." Asher hissed. "You're the one. Who tried to kill me eight years ago."

The man's eyes widened. "You - that was eight yea-"

The pistol went off.

The man's head exploded.

John gasped.

Slowly, Asher put the pistol down.

Then, briefly to John. "Let's go."

* * *

"What?" Asher asked.

John remained silent.

The two were walking home, and John had been confused, angry and surprised at the same time. In order not to confuse matters, he kept silent.

"What!?" Asher repeated again. "You want to tell me something. So tell me."

John mumbled something.

Asher raised his eyebrows at him. "Yeah...?" he asked, not hearing.

"How do you do it?" John asked, finally meeting Asher's gaze.

The boy looked confused. "What...?"

"How do you kill people like that?"

Asher looked away. "I - uh... What do you mean?"

"Killing a man. A person," John spat with more ferocity than he meant.

"Well -" Asher mulled over the question for a second. "I... That guy, he tried to kill me when I was six. And again, just then."

John nodded slowly and sarcastically. "And that's your revenge."

"Uh... Well, it's just like -"

"So, answer my question."

Asher knew what he was refering to. "How do I do it," he asked himself.

He looked up, and John felt that momentarily, he'd lost Asher, it wasn't Asher that looked at him, it was a abused tool that had rebelled.

Asher spat the world out bitterly. "Hate."

**Asher: Revealled. Clever people may use this last bit to predict exactly what will happen in my next short story. So. That's Asher, a cold-blooded killer driven by hate, friendless and hated by the community, driven into this world and shunned by his creators. (This will make a lot more sense after my short story will be released).**

**Hey. I have an idea: let's make a deal. You R&R, I write. My last review was a few months ago. I need critisism to improve my writing. So bad-mouth me. I welcome it.**

**Kimjel, out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**14 July, 2554, 1512 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Tom felt himself rudely dragged to his knees. "C'mon, man," growled a voice. "Show's starting." **(A/N: Yes, the SPARTAN-IIIs were onboard the UNSC ****_Gray Wolf_****) **Tom surveyed his surroundings. Lucy and Ash **(Not to be confused with Asher) **were in similar positions.

"What if I don't want to go?" he whined aggravetely.

A firm foot planted in his backside. "You go anyway," the man replied. Tom felt a plasma pistol pressed to the back of his head.

"Fine." Tom challeneged. "Kill me. I dare you."

Lucy threw him an imploring look.

The man kicked him again and began pulling him by his handcuffs outside. There, sitting or lying in awkward positions, were Fred, Linda, Kelly, Jai, Adriana, Mark and Olivia. All were bound with crude, but effective, handcuffs.

Fred looked up. "Welcome to the party," he grunted.

The man who had been kicking Tom shook his head and smirked. "The famous SPARTAN project. And it just turns out to be a bunch of smart-alecs. Why don't we just kill them here and now?"

The older, more senior man, gave a cold smile.

"It's more fun this way."

"I can't wait," Mark growled.

The younger man chuckled sadistically. "Neither can I. Let's get started.

* * *

**Arghhh! This chapter doesn't want to work right for me! So because of that I'll just skip it... it may be updated, but maybe not. So we'll have a short chapter today.**

**OK?  
**

* * *

John cast another glance at Asher.

Really, the boy was all surprises.

Asher coolly acknowledged the glance and looked away.

Suddenly, John realized that Asher, although unusual on the outside, was normal on the inside._ That could be you, _John thought_. A hate driven, world angry_ automaton. And the only reason that he wasn't... John couldn't think.

"Hey," commented Asher, "Another of these parties."

Confused, John looked up. There, ahead, was a large gathering of people. They were all cheering.

"Hmm," replied John, not thinking much. Civilians, and especially the insurrectionist population, were unpredictable.

"UNSC, too," added Asher, and John, not paying attention and only hearing, "UNSC", jerked his head up.

"Wha-"

A broad, yet evil grin spread across Asher's features as he entered the crowd.

John looked up the stage where burning UNSC logos and UNSC Craft replica's were destroyed by cheering crowds.

"And now," boomed the loudspeaker, "The UNSC have gotten brazen enough to spy on us. And we bring proof."

John groanded inwardly. An anti-UNSC show. He might as well pack it and -

He almost screamed with shock.

Dragged onto the stage was Kelly.

**I know that was short, it was meant to be. Sorry, I couldn't be stuffed filling it up. I could have continued it but I like cliffhangers. Don't forget to R&R on your out.**

**Kimjel, out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**14 July, 2554, 1516 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

John stared in shock. 1,000,000 frantic thoughts rushed through his mind... How long had it been... One, two, almost three years since he had seen her last. But she'd changed; the face that stared out at the crowd was an angry, defiant face. One who cared only to kill or destroy her enemies.

"Oh, Kelly..." John whispered, and clenched his fists. Spirited away in 2552 by Dr. Halsey, she disappeared, like his friends, like Fhajad, Kirk, Rene, Arthur, Solomon, Maria, Sam, James, and all 75 of his Spartan brothers and sisters.

And now she was back. Where was the UNSC? The other SPARTANS?

John stared back at her. There was a slight chance she would see him... No, she'd dismiss it as a lookalike. And she was staring at her captor cockily.

John clenched his fists again and squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Nothing had changed.

* * *

"So," said the man quietly, he voice projected throughout the entire settlement with speakers. "Kelly, SPARTAN-087 of ONI Section 3 NavSpecWar. Are you enjoying your stay in Harvest?"

Kelly growled, "Yeah, great. Bring on the party."

John's eyes widened. This was Kelly... But yet not Kelly. She wasn't the friendly young woman John had known. This was the SPARTAN that Ackerson had tried to create. A emotionless, sardonic killing machine.

The man frowned. "Getting cocky here? I have a solution for talkative people... Rip their vocal chords out."

Kelly smiled back at him. "Next please," she commented.

The man smiled a wolf's smile at her. "You want it? You'll get it..."

He slid a plasma pistol out from one pocket. "So... We make a deal. You shut up, and I won't burn 3rd degree plasma all over you."

Kelly shut her mouth.

The man smiled a thin-lipped smile. Although a trivial request, John realized it really was just to get a foothold on her.

"Deal two," he continued. "Reveal to us the Insurrectionist countermeasures that are being undertaken by the UNSC."

Kelly smiled back at him. "That one and the other one."

"You're making this hard," growled the man at her. Slowly, he squeezed the trigger of the pistol. A green orb of plasma slowly formed around its head. There was a sigh of anticipation from the crowd.

_No matter how desperate the situation... _Both John and Mendez's words entered Kelly's brain. She gave a final, defiant grin.

"Bite me."

John cringed as the arc of plasma slashed across Kelly's chest, not piercing, but searing across, and splashing into a sizzling ball of heat along the wall.

"Tell!" chanted the man.

Kelly stared at him, bit her tongue, and lashed out with her head. It caught the man in the groin and he hit the ground.

The crowd roared.

Up again, and mad with rage, the torturer raised the pistol and fired three shots, all criss-crossing Kelly's body. The plasma splashed into the wall and the crowed roared again.

Kelly felt herself loosing conciousness - forced herself into the Zen no-mind that she and Linda practiced - gave a desperate wrench against the cuffs - felt herself loosing - - -

And locked eyes with John.

Kelly knows she was dreaming, she must have been dreaming, the world is slowly burning up in plasma, and then John - or is it Fred? talking to her subconcious mind.

_"Focus, Kelly, be a SPARTAN."_

Kelly shook herself back up before she managed one more defiant smile at the crowd and the burning plasma and-

Lost conciousness.

* * *

"You seemed pretty shaken up," Asher commented to John.

John didn't say anything.

"The presentation, right?" Asher enquired.

John made a positive motion and kept walking.

Asher shrugged. "It's not a big deal. They are _UNSC_ after all." He spat out the word like it was a dirty word or something.

John turned. "I am UNSC, you know."

"You're not in service." Asher always had an answer.

"You know who they were torturing?" John asked.

Asher nodded. "They read out her name. She's my... Wait... Was that your friend?"

John looked away.

"Oh..." said Asher. But it wasn't a sympathetic Oh. It was something else.

"What?"

Asher stared down. "No. I just figured out who I am."

**(A:N. Torturing you guys with intangible spoilers for the myster that shrouds Asher is fun. Let's keep doing it.)**

John looked strangely at Asher. The boy was... Different. And really different.

* * *

_Hey, Kelly._

_Weird how things work out, huh?_

_You survived the war,_

_Lost your friends_

_Lost your humanity_

_Now humans are going to kill you_

_Why do you fight the covenant?_

_You know who really is the problem._

It was John's voice, and Kelly fought with her consciousness. She wanted to stay in the dream - stay with John - even if it were only his voice.

There was a hand - running all over her body - searing pain into all her burns - fire and ice stabbed her body - there was someone pulling her up and straddling her, throwing her onto the ground -

Then the world backflipped to its correct dimension and Kelly felt the familiar military grade burn bio-cream easing into her wounds. A slight prick, and a cold flame ran into her arm. Artificial Adrenaline.

Kelly coughed, felt herself lifted up, and a voice saying something to her.

It was the dream again, she felt, and let herself limp in the protecting arms.

"Fred?" she whispered.

She began to loose consciousness again, and heard a voice gently tell her to go back to sleep.

**Sorry about that. I know the feeling - a cliffhanger deserves action. But this part of the fic begins the action. The rest was practically an intro. I'm not going so much as SPARTAN running around killing things violence, I'm bad at that. (By that I mean I'm not overly skilled at it). I prefer exploring morals, emotions, friendships, and angst/reconcilliation. But don't worry, you'll get action.**

**Kimjel, out**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**21 July, 2554, 0620 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Kelly woke to the soft tread of feet on carpet.

Slowly waking, she found herself on a bed. A makeshift IV hung next to the bed, with some creamy fluid in a bag. It was hanging out of her arm, but turned off.

Slowly and painfully, she ripped it out, feeling the burns all over her body. Sitting up,vshe looked around. She was in a bedroom, carpet, an MA5C ICWS hanging from the wall, and a rude chair and desk.

A boy of about 13 to 15 years old entered the room. He was holding a tray and a syringe in one hand. Kelly blinked.

The boy slapped the tray on the desk - it contained a bag of the same creamy liquid in the IV.

"Spartan-087?"

The voice... That was strangely familiar too. Like the face. Where had she seen that before? It was like a face from a dream, no-one she knew owned it, but there was a sense of deja vu...

But the voice was cold. Unfriendly.

"This is the second time you've woken. I don't know why we're keeping you here."

He attached the new bag to the IV and began filling the syringe with some clear liquid.

"I... What?" Kelly began. She had a million questions.

The boy nodded. "You probably wouldn't remember waking the first time."

The voice, still deja vu, but a sense of alien shrouding it. Not that she hadn't heard it before, wherever she had heard it, but it had a new tone to her, angry, hating.

"So... Where am I?" she enquired.

The boy looked back at her. "In friendly territory," he growled, voice suggesting anything but.

Turning the IV on, he pushed the needle into her skin again. "This is for your burn therapy."

"Thanks," she began, but then the boy shoved his face into her face.

"Look," he hissed. "If I had my way, you'd still be at the hands of the insurrection. Torturing you. Brainwashing you. Or I could kill you here and now."

Waving the syringe in her face, he showed her the contents of it. Anesthetic. "I could overdose you with this and kill you easily. OR make it more painful."

Kelly narrowed her eyes. "Why don't you?" It was a challenge, and they both knew it.

He stabbed the syringe into her and pushed it exactly up to half, enough to knock her out for a few days.

The world began to swim as the drug took effect. The words entered her consciousness.

_"Because you're John's friend."_

* * *

"Asher?"

The boy turned from Kelly's bedside after administering the drug.

John sat down next to the bed.

"Why do you hate the UNSC like this?"

Asher didn't answer. Finally, he said, "What was it like when you first joined the UNSC?"

John frowned. What was he getting at? "I was...confused, upset?"

"Do you ever question how fair it is for ONI to abduct you, kill or disable half of you and turn the rest of you into semi-freaks?"

That hit hard. From someone John knew, not the taunting ODSTs. Someone who knew all the details...

"Look -"

Asher waved a hand. "I know. That's all right. You had _friends._" He waved towards the motionless figure on the bed.

John set his jaw.

"I..." then he stopped and reconsidered.

If Sam had just been SPARTAN-043, if Fred had just been a team-mate, if Kelly had just been a fellow soldier... _Where would I be now? A murderous, robotic killing machine? An emotionless misanthrope?_

John dropped his eyes.

"I... I'm sorry," he stuttered.

Asher bit his lip. "Don't be," he said quietly. He sounded as if he might cry, as if the shell of hate and anger around him had left only sadness and loneliness.

He looked up. "It's who I am. I can't change it."

John looked at Kelly's sleeping figure. Asher was right, the SPARTANs weren't teammates. They were brothers and sisters.

* * *

Asher glanced at the salvaged HUD of John's MNJOLNIR armour, locked onto Kelly's biosigns. It had moved from a coma to normal sleep.

He moved towards her, and was about the put some more drugs into her system, when John stopped him.

"It'll be ok, Asher. Just leave her."

Asher looked uneasy. "Watch her... She's uneasy."

Frowning, John observed her sleeping figure. Asher was right, she stirred and groaned a few times before settling back down.

"...That's not from injuries or the burns," he commented. "I've seen Kelly, and she will either go through the pain or go straight out."

Asher toyed with the IV, then put it back down. "Burn treatment... I'm a bad medic."

Kelly's eyes slid open. "Fred?"

Frowning, Asher advanced, but then Kelly sat up. "Fred!" she shouted, and fell back down again.

John stopped Asher. "She's sleeptalking."

Asher turned and looked at John. "And that's normal?"

Slowly, John nodded. "You're right..."

Asher pushed the IV back in and turned it on.

Kelly gave a wild jerk, and the needle slid out, Kelly rolled off the bed, and everyone gave a shout of surprise.

John knelt by the bed. Kelly was making fighting movements. "John..." she shouted, and suddenly woke up.

_"John."_

**Arrgh! This doesn't want to work with me, I've got writers block, and I have no time to write. Sorry for the short chapter, this ends here. I'll get the next one out ASAP. **

**The story, BTW, is entering the decisive phase, so you might want to hang on. And also, just saying, I am not taking ideas, unless they are just minor.**

**Kimjel, out**

**(And don't forget to R&R on your way out)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**21 July, 2554, 0630 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

For two whole seconds, Kelly stared at John.

John stared back.

Kelly threw herself on John, grabbed him and pressed her face into his shirt, dimly feeling the tears running down her face. She felt the burns up and down her sides, but disregarded them.

John, caught in the awkward situation, had no option but to recitify it - he hugged her back, tentatively.

Kelly pulled back, repeating his name over again. John resisted her briefly.

"Kelly...! It's all right," he consoled her, as tears trickled down her face.

Finally she stopped and sat down again staring at him.

"Kelly," John began, but suddenly Asher stepped in. John turned to face him, expecting a frown, he met a humored grin.

John turned back and faced Kelly. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he pushed her back before she bubbled over again.

"John," she repeated. "What - how..."

Asher rolled his eyes. "Here we go again..."

* * *

John and Kelly were still talking, Asher thought, as he walked downstairs again. It had been... At least an hour.

No, John was coming out now...

As John left the room, he ran into Asher, who was still smirking.

"You were saying a few days ago," Asher grinned.

John frowned. "...?"

"_Spartans are asexual. Spartans can't feature in a romance. _Come on, John, what were you thinking?"

Shaking his head, John replied, "Same as I am now. Kelly has been my best friend since before... Before you were born."

A dark look crossed Asher's face briefly, then passed. "Can't you tell, John, she likes you."

John laughed to himself. "Who do you think us SPARTANs are? Actors? Stars?"

"Fine! Don't believe me, then," Asher said as he entered Kelly's room.

John considered what Asher had said, then disregarded it. He was wrong - he _had_ to be wrong. Kelly was... Kelly. Not a romantic... John wasn't sure. Kelly had changed, and thta troubled him.

* * *

"So-so," Asher said, spreading out a map of Harvest out. "You have an AI onboard _Gray Wolf_, right?"

Kelly nodded.

"Then it'll keep the ship in orbit... How did... Would the ship have been captured?"

Kelly snagged Asher's PDA off the table and punched in a few codes, the a well remembered algorithm.

"Huh. Cheap," she muttered, as the UNSC simple codebreaker slipped into the Insurrectionist network.

Scrolling through a few somethings, she frowned, "There's a report, but it looks like the ship has gone. Disappeared, maybe back to Earth."

John turned to Asher. "Do you have any transport ships here?"

Asher shook his head. "Not that I know of. But I've lived here since I was small, so I don't know about the other settlements. But there will be a few transport Pelicans and military Pelicans in Settlement 1A."

Kelly frowned. "Which is where?"

John shrugged. "Probably in the middle. Semi-unglassed part of the UNSC settlements, I guess?"

Asher nodded. "Well, partially. The groundside MAC Cannon-" (this caught their attention) "And main living is on the surface. Military underground."

John exchanged a worried glance with Kelly. "This... Place is more sophsticated than I thought," he said, looking worried. "Who will we have to fight?"

Waving a nonchalant hand, Asher dismissed the thought. "All the same, MA5's, Plasma Pistols... Old junk."

John nodded, slightly comforted.

Kelly looked worried. "What about the rest of them? Blue Team?"

John paled. "They're here?"

* * *

**(A/N: Please do not read if you get grossed out/horrified easily)**

Tom stared at Lucy sadly, then rattled his chains.

_No use communicating, we'll only get beaten._

Tom nodded.

"And," began the man again. "We will kill you and your planets, and wipe you out. We will become the humans. And we begin."

He waved the Forerunner weapon in his hands. "We are the reclaimers."

He aimed the gun, by chance at Tom. "And you are either with us or without us. I'll make an example of you.

Tom locked eyes with him, and lashed out with his foot, aiming for the insurrectionist's stomach.

With a sarcastic laugh, the man easily sidestepped, and fired his gun.

A flash of green light, and a spear of light hit Tom in the chest, becoming coherent with an ugly crack. Tom cried out in shock and pain, and was smashed against the wall.

"Stage one," growled the man in satisfaction. "Infection."

The light switched off. A beige, green, moldy wound dripped from Tom's torso.

In a matter of seconds, Tom changed. Screaming, he bent double, coughing and spluttering.

"Stage two," continued the rebel. "Internal liquification."

Tom's chest exploded, and he began coughing, and transformed. Flood appendages riped their way out of his head, arms, and torso.

"Step three," finished the man. "Death and hosting of infection."

Tearing his chains off the wall, along with one of his arms, the flood that had been Tom charged forward, and attacked the insurrectionist. With another spear of coherent light, the man pushed the ex-SPARTAN III into Lucy, who was sitting, shocked.

There was a roar from Tom, a scream from Lucy's mutilated vocal chords, and then a shot, taking the Flood form.

Lucy lay on the ground, blood dripping from two deadly wounds.

"...Tom..." she managed to croak, and died.

Fred stood, shocked. Tom had slumped to the floor, and an infection form was running around the room.

With a quick spear of light, it exploded.

The gun waved at Fred, Linda, Ash, Mark and Oliva, and ushered them back into their cells.

The five SPARTAN's ran back in... They could have killed him, but not before he had infected one of them... Killing all six.

"That," whispered Fred, "Is seriously screwed."

Ash looked around. "Where's Kelly?

**Sorry if I get some characters personalitites wrong, I haven't read Ghosts of Onyx. Please R&R.**

**Kimjel, out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**21 July, 2554, 1104 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Kelly pointed to a dot on the PDA. "Found them."

John nodded slowly. "Lets go and get them."

Picking up Cortana's chip from the table as well as his MA5C (now repaired), he handed an M6H to Kelly.

"Asher," he began.

Oblivious of what John was suggesting, Asher raised his eyebrows. "Uhh, can you wait a sec?"

There was a few humming noises and Asher exited from his room, carrying a small bag.

"Yeah?"

Frowning, John pointed at the bag. "What's that?"

"My stuff. You don't expect me to..." his voice trailed off as he saw the looks John was giving him. "What, you mean you're going alone?" he asked incredulously.

John half nodded. "Ye- n... Kelly and I -"

Kelly exchanged a glance with John, then locked eyes with Asher. He stared back. _Unfinished business. We still aren't friends._

John understood. "Asher, see -"

Asher was taking no nonsense. "I'm coming, John. Ever since we met I've been a pest. Now I want to help."

"Asher," Kelly began, "aren't you -"

John silenced Kelly with a glance. She hadn't seen him fight yet.

"Asher, I appreciate your gesture," John said, tactfully trying to bluff his way out. "But.., we don't even have weapons for you and -"

Asher pulled his arms back and stood straighter, and John could seethe outline under his shirt of a plasma sword handle and a M6D.

Kelly's eyes widened in amazement.

"You grow up here," Asher smiled triumphantly, "You've _gotta_ learn some tricks."

John nodded slowly and dumbly.

Kelly threw John a look. "John - I..."

"You're UNSC," replied Asher. John wasn't sure whether that meant Kelly or the two of them. "I'm insurrectionist. What doesn't change is that we're friends."

Kelly knew this wasn't directed at her. "John," she tried again -

"And I'm willing to put my antagonism with the UNSC aside - for now."

Kelly looked at John, then Asher.

John slung his bag over his shoulder. "Then lets go."

Asher followed him out the door. Dumbly, Kelly threw a hood over her face to hide from anyone outside who could identify her, and followed.

* * *

"But what _was_ that, anyway?"

Fred grimaced. "We've got to get back to earth. Screw this mission. Screw John. We've got to move. We can come back here later."

Laughter boomed through the speakers. "Enjoy yourselves."

"Oh, man," Ash growled.

Linda pointed. "...look!"

A small drone was hovering over their heads, carrying the same weapon that the insurrectionist had carried earlier. "Try hard, SPARTANs. Who's John?"

Silently, Fred cursed himself for being so careless.

Fred half-heartedly took down the drone, knocked out the gun, and twisted its power source into the bio-ammunition. He wasn't going to risk contamination of anyone or anything.

Linda got up and after disinterestedly peering at the smouldering flood spores, began poking around the walls.

The doors hissed open, and five guards entered, carrying the same forerunner weapons.

"Move," growled the leader. He shoved Linda out, then Fred.

Fred's heart sank; an execution block. Cheering people.

He glanced behind him, and saw Mark and Olivia being shoved out. Ash. Where was -

The leading guard screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, hands clasping his forehead. A smouldering piece of metal from the destroyed forerunner weapon smashed into his forehead.

The other guards raised their energy weapons.

Ash remained in the middle of the cell.

"Move, kid," growled a beefy guard.

Ash didn't wince, but raising the core of the energy weapon, hurled the block of pure energy at the guards.

There was a plasma explosion, the smell of sizzling flood spores, and eachof the guards fell back screaming.

Ash ran out, his right hand smouldering from the energy.

"Hurry!" he gasped, cradling his burnt hand. In his other, he held a rough metal club.

Fred grabbed Ash, threw him over his shoulder and grabbed the metal club. Ash was getting nowhere with that hand. It would probably be replaced.

Charging out, he struck the MA5 out of the hand of a shocked civilian guard and ran out.

Linda, occupied with an old S1 Sniper Rifle, saw the other's leave. Taking the time to scoop up the ammo, she ran after them.

* * *

Asher and John went first, because the guards knew them, and watched from a higher level to see what would happen to Kelly.

The guard nodded to each of them, but when Kelly arrived, he asked for money.

Silently, John cursed himself for his laziness. He ought to have known...

Kelly began to walk away, slowly, and the guard followed her, after watching a few seconds.

Asher quickly lobbed a piece of raw meat down at the guard. The meat missed its target, landing on the guard's foot and not his head. Kelly turned, hearing the noise. The guard was reaching into his pocket to grab a Magnum when one of the stray dogs attacked him, attracted to the meat.

As the guard managed to get himself mauled, he hit an emergency button, but Kelly was already up and away.

Asher bit his lip. "Now comes the fun part," he said, and pointed.

The way out was covered by ten guards.

"That is seriously screwed," John whispered to Kelly.

"I know," grunted Asher, and walked back casually towards an nearby alley. "You two... Get occupied."

Out of the corner of his eye, John watched Asher snake up a wall, shinny across a drainpipe, and drop softly in the snow behind the guards.

Three of the guards were unconscious in heartbeats, hit by attacks on their spinal cords. As the rest turned, John ran up, hooked three and knocked him to the ground. Asher finished the last ones with two swipes of a plasma blade. The four guards who weren't unconscious lay on the ground, clutching plasma wounds.

"That wasn't wise," Asher grimaced. "Now _you'll _be on the wanted list too."

John looked out at the bleak landscape. "If we manage to live long enough."

**That was lame. I've got writers block. (Again). Don't forget to R&R on your way out. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**21 July, 2554, 1349 Hours, Unidentified Icefield, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Asher shivered as he chopped the snow and ice that had built up in the nuclear winter for the last few decades.

It was cold work, specially without the equipment necessary - not even a shovel. He used a metal stick and his hands, which were turning blue.

"Look at this!" shouted John from about fifty metres away.

Slowly, Asher got up from his work and followed Kelly to John's position.

It was a rocky outcrop, forming a mound with a few loose stones sticking out the top and snow and ice covering it on all sides.

Asher frowned. "I'm trying to dig an ice cave but I..." He stopped, rethought, and began hacking away at the ice next to the outcrop. Suddenly, he broke through and hit snow. Shovelling it away with his blue hands, he had a small cave, big enough for someone his size to fit in.

John pursed his lips. "Move, Asher." He nudged the boy out of the way and dug his big hands into the snow, pulled, shoveled, and pulled again. Kelly and Asher cleared the snow outside.

"Ow," John grunted, and retrieved his hands. Through the numb cold, he'd been rubbing it against the rock and almost torn his fingernails off. Blood dripped from his fingers, freezing onto the ground.

Asher finally gave in, took his plasma pistol out, held it up to full charge, and melted the snow and ice inside, carving a decent sized cave - it was just wet. Kelly drained the water out. Asher crawled in. As Kelly entered, she shook her head.

"This was dumb. Isn't there a better way of getting to Settlement 1A?"

Asher thought, "If you want to risk getting arrested..." he knocked on the stone thoughtfully. It was flat and smooth.

"Or not," he said, and examined the outcrop. "Concrete," he mused.

"Meaning?" Kelly asked, flapping her arms around in a vain attempt to warm up.

"It's not an outcrop," interjected John. Asher took out his plasma blade and in a neat move, slashed the concrete in one swipe. A metal grating stood in front of him.

"I might have known," he said to John. Scooping snow onto the places where the concrete was boiling hot, he crawled in.

"What are you doing?" frowned Kelly.

Asher locked eyes with her. "Surviving. Let's get out of this storm."

* * *

Fred barrelled out of the doorway and into the streets, lugging Ash on his back, Mark and Olivia in tag. "Linda!" shouted Olivia. Fred turned, but only saw shouting soldiers.

"Too late," hissed Ash. The company exited the settlement, meeting snow and ice.

"We're screwed," mumbled Mark.

Twelve guards with assault rifles were fanning out. One raised his rifle. "Come on!" he shouted, and fired a sustained burst.

Olivia dropped, bleeding. Mark pulled her back up.

Fred put Ash down, and in a series of delicate knife manouvers that he constantly practiced, used his club to knock out two of the guards. There was a burst of 7.62mm rounds, and Fred felt a bullet brush his ribs, when he met a glowing plasma ball and -

A quartet of shots rang out and four guards dropped dead.

Linda dropped from a roof. "Sorry I'm late. Sir."

Fred didn't return the greeting. "Stow formalities, soldier. Grab some weapons and go."

Mark looked disgustedly at the collection of plasma ordinance and MA5s. Finally, he took a plasma pistol and M6C*.

Ash, who was looking slightly better, rubbed some snow into his hand and picked up an MA3 in one hand.

Fred looked at his team. Kelly... He hadn't seen her. Was she even alive?

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he walked out into the snow.

* * *

Asher landed with a gooey *plop* in the mud and waste. Snapping on a light, he looked around.

Kelly and John slowly lowered themselves in. "Ugh," muttered Kelly. "What- where are we?"

Asher waved the light around. "Looks like one of the side-passage sewers. Better than dying lf cold out there."

A snowflake trickled down onto his shoulder. "Or not," he growled. "Let's go."

Slopping through the mud, he climbed put onto a concrete ledge and looked at an emergency exit sign, glowing faintly. John examined it and shrugged. "Which way do we go?"

Asher looked left, then right, and thought for a second. "Right," Kelly put in.

Considering for a second, Asher shook his head. "This is a side passage sewer. We want to find the cargo train or the main sewer.

Quietly, Kelly wondered what the main sewer might look like. She checked the burn biofoam on her right calf, wondering if it would be suseptible to the who-knows-what floating around. Infection was not what she needed here.

**I can't finish it. But I'll just go on with the next chapter. No groundbreaking info there.**

**Kimjel, out**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**21 July, 2554, 1455 Hours, Settlement 1A Sewer System, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Asher looked up. "We should be right... Right underneath them, now."

Kelly reached up. "So, this is Settlement 1A? That was quick!"

Asher frowned as he tapped on his datapad. "Reception's bad down, here, but..."

He looked up. "Weird. Reception just went up again. Let's blow the door."

John nodded, stepped forward, and was just about to blow the lock off the sewer lid, when he paused. "No," he said. "Pass me that datapad."

He took a chip out of his pocket, threw a tube of nanites out, and inserted it into the pad.

Cortana's image blinked into view. "Chief!"

"Cortana?" asked John.

Kelly stepped forward, frowning. "Cor - wha?"

Asher nodded, understanding.

Cortana stood up from the crosslegged position her avatar had been presuming on-screen. "If this is a debriefing..." she looked around with the datapad's sensors. "Make it quick."

Asher had a queasy feeling in his stomach about Cortana. Someone/something that likely knew who he was... hopefully he'd managed to erase those files on UNSC databases. But he had no option but to trust her.

"Pass me the datapad," he asked, examining the walls. John handed him the datapad.

"We're just about to blow the door," he said, and began building up a orb of plasma in his pistol. Cortana thought for a second. "Asher, point the pad at the sky."

"Just a sec..." Asher grumbled, and scraped his atl-atl darts with the dirtiest waste the datapad could detect.

John fired the plasma ball.

"Wait!" shouted Cortana. The hatch fell inwards, bashing Kelly on the head. Four infection rifles poked into the manhole.

"Welcome home, John."

**(A/N: This isn't the only Halo 4 reference. And Halo 4 will be in this story. The twisted version.)**

* * *

Asher darted back from the manhole, almost dropping the datapad. There was a splosh, and three rats ran squeaking.

Two of the insurrectionist guards lowered themselves into the manhole and shoved John and Kelly up and out. One of them raised his rifle around, scanning for the splash.

"Just a rat," grinned the other, and climbing up, they bolted the sewer.

Asher quickly made his desicion and started backtracking down the sewer path.

"What's happening?" frowned Cortana from the pad. "Your device's sensors are inadequate for -"

"Shut it," growled Asher. "Tell me, are there any heartbeats around?"

Cortana frowned. "I assume we've been captured."

Asher sighed. "We're in the sewer. I managed to get away. John and Kelly are gone. Heartbeats." As an after thought, he added, "please." AIs were interesting, but "Smart" AIs creeped him.

"Scanning..." Cortana hummed. "Inadequate data."

Asher examined the sewer wall and shoved the datapad next to a grating.

"...one. Heartbeat patterns match unconscious or asleep."

Asher nodded, and blew the grating open.

There was one man unconsious. Asher quietly snuck in, looked around, and grimaced. It was a prison cell, and he'd just climbed through the toilet grating.

Asher frowned. The Insurrection didn't treat their prisoners like this... Usually. Maybe security was different here in 1A.

Shoving the datapad into his pocket, he examined the door. "Cortana," he whispered. "Can you unlock the door?"

There was quiet hummings from the pad. "Working..."

It was fortunate that this was a high security center. The doors were electronically locked, so Cortana could break them. If it had been simple steel... He would be stuck. Bigtime.

The door hissed quietly open. Asher crept out into the concrete jungle.

* * *

The guard yawned, stomped a few times, shrugged, and rubbed hs ears? Guarding a deep Military Facility was getting boring... Specially in the snow.

There was a quiet hiss. Surprised, he looked around, but saw nothing except steel doors, concrete and snow. Shrugging again, he shouldered the laser rifle and closed his eyes for a quick nap.

His eye's jerked open... How long - no... It was alright. No-one had come past. His footprints were still fresh.

The hiss and whine again, and a dog came trotting round the corner. That had probably woken him up.

"You. Shoo!" he commanded. His voice cracked in the cold weather, and he waved his gun. Most animals knew what a weapon was in these parts of the settlement

The dog whined again, and seeing the gun, growled.

Just then, there was another hiss, a dart struck the wall behind him, and the dog leapt.

The guard shrieked, tried to dodge and shoot the laser, but found that the dart had stuck his hood to the wall. The dog was growling and attacking the dart for something on it, and mauling the guard in the process.

Asher grinned, lowered his atl-atl, and slipped into the high security part of the base. The meat-dog trick never failed.

Snooping in, he peered through the "Bio-Hazard" door and saw a bunch of techs and doctors. John and Kelly were unconscious, cross-eagled and naked on separate operating tables. The doctors were milling around them.

Asher frowned. He wasn't going to be freeing them in a while. _Better hide,_ he decided, as the doctors, except for two, began to leave the room. He ducked into a ventilator. Fortunately he was small enough to fit.

* * *

John looked up uneasily. He was strapped into an operating table, and two doctors were examining consoles. Some other doctors were exiting, and Kelly beside him was groaning.

John looked around - the two SPARTANs were naked on surgical operation tables. There were two new scars slashed across his abdomen... How had they gotten there? Observing Kelly, he saw the same scars.

_What had the doctors wanted?_ he thought, as memories began to come back. Arrested in the sewers... Pointless interrogations... What?

It didn't work. It just didn't work.

**Fred-104 (The Fanfiction user, not the character!) has notified me that my stories are confusing because of lack of detail. This was confirmed by mkeeg91 a few chapters ago. Tell me in a review: do you have trouble following the storyline? Kimjel, out.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Yeah, so I understand there are definately a few problems. So I'll answer a few questions. **

**1. How did the Innies get the flood spores in the first place? The Insurrectionist executioner kindof hinted that. He said, "We are the reclaimers", attaining a wealth of information from the Forerunners. Don't worry, I tied this in nicely with Halo 4.**

**2. Timeline correspondents? Don't worry, I've got it. Just wait.**

**3. Confused? My bad. Now, for every scene change, I will put a heading in. Rad the time, the date, and the location. Very important.**

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**22 July, 2554, 0004 Hours, Settlement 1A Medical Facility, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

"I don't get it," John whispered, as he found himself hauled back to his cell.

Kelly stared straight ahead, the looked at him, and mouthed "insurrectionist SPARTANs".

It would be slightly obvious that the Insurrectionist intended to make their own SPARTANs with the medical data retrieved from John and Kelly but... it didn't work. Just because John examined Kelly's stomach... Yes, the scar wounds on the abdomen. An operation? A time bomb in their chests? A bug? If the Insurrectionists had been studying the SPARTANs, wouldn't they have disected them?

It didn't fit. John examined his captor, he was a no-nonsense Insurrectionist. No way out through him.

Where was Asher when they needed him?

Asher, at that certain moment, was tailing Blue Team with Cortana's help. He'd finally located them, and was slinking through the streets of the Insurrectionist base.

Asher grinned. Commerce section - fancy words for greenhouse markets. A bunch of greenhouses, growing vegetables, was having a sale. Good. He'd be able to mix into the crowd.

Asher bumped his way through, slipped past a stall, and ducked through a few vegetable pots.

"Hey!"

Asher turned a saw an angry man approaching at a run - probably the stall owner. Asher ran.

The man began shouting, "thief!" A few grinning citizens joined in, enjoying a chase. Asher blundered through the streets.

Tipping a basket of nuts across the path to deter them, he ran straight into an insurrectionist guard.

_Great._

"Little rascal, eh?" growled the big man, lifting Asher up by his shirt. His eyes narrowed. "Hey, aren't you the one who -"

That was as far as he got. Asher's foot twisted into the man's crotch. He dropped, groaning. Asher took off. But now the rest of the guards were chasing him too.

Asher dived into an alleyway, tripped over some druggies playing cards, and vaulted onto the roof. He waited.

There was some shouting, and the druggies and the guards walked out together. Good. They were distracted now.

Asher slunk down onto the ground, crept through an alley, and disappeared.

* * *

**21 July, 2554, Time [ANOMALY], somewhere in Space nearth outer colonies.**

"Captain! Captain!"

Serina's voice jolted the cryotube again. "Wake up, captain. Something has happened."

There was a quiet hiss as the cryotube deaactivated itself slowly. "Captain?"

Captain James Cutter wiped his hand across his brow. "Serina? Wha-"

He climbed out of the cryotube slowly, coughing and spluttering.

Serina waited for a few seconds, and started again. "Something has happened, sir."

Cutter reached into a locker and grabbed a cloth undergarment. "Yes?"

Serina pointed to a broken cryopod.

Captain Cutter frowned. "And...?"

Serina screamed. It was a horrible, grating sound, reminding cutter of the zombie films he'd seen in his youth. Cutter raised his M6D.

"Serina?"

The AI avatar was on her knees, screaming horribly. In a second, she transformed. The graceful body twisted into a grotesque shape, the AI terminal broke in half, and a Flood tentacle ememeged from inside. Serina was rapidly turning into a massive, grotesque, floodlike shape. She chuckled, and the screams faded into the background.

"So misguided, captain," boomed the speakers. "To fight the flood... Your body is a burden transcendence a my gift."

Cutter's eyes widened, and he backed away. "S - Serina!"

The creature laughed, a throaty grumble that reverbated through the ship.

"The foolish construct. She thought she could resist a Gravemind." The Flood intelligence suddenly pulled itself up. "She suffered!" he roared. "And so will you..."

Cutter broke from the trance. He dashed to the nearest cryopod and activated the wake sequence. He dashed through the cryochamber, hitting jettison buttons, as the Gravemind behind him roared.

Cutter turned. The cryopod was empty, except for three pods, opening. The rest were launching into space.

"You will suffer!" screamed the Gravemind insanely. The tentacle split into fine cillia, and stabbed into Cutter's back. He screamed in agony and dropped to the floor, as fire raced though his veins. Vaguely, he heard a hiss of the cryopods opening. The world began to swirl with infections forms.

A squelch, and a burst of gunfire. The gravemind roared, and a SPARTAN-II depolarized his visor.

"Sir. Are you OK?"

Cutter dropped onto his face as the tentacle withdrew. "SPARTANs... cryopods jetisoned... Save them."

Then he died.

**Ok. So that was kindof short, and I haven't updated for a while... I'm up to about chapter 4 on *tweet tweet* (name of my next short story). I still need AMBAP (as many betas as possible). I haven't played Halo Wars, so forgive me.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**22 July, 2554, 3023 Hours, Settlement 1A Outskirts, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Ash shivered in the cold, morning weather. The sun was hardly ever around, with nuclear winter. He'd seen photos of Harvest before it was partially glassed... I was like paradise compared to this.

The Spartans were huddled around each-other under an overhanging rock. It stopped the main flow of wind and snow, and was slightly hollow, conerving a bit of warmth. Ash tried to wiggle himself into a more comfortable position, but it was impossible. He sighed.

For a large, augmented he was in a slightly awkward position. Curled into a ball as tightly as possible, Mark bunched up, squeezing his right, Linda practically on him, Fred... No, he was up and walking around, hands under his armpits.

Olivia stomped her feet in the snow powder. "This can't go on," she whispered. "I'd rather die like Tom and Lucy than freeze to death slowly."

Fred shot her a freezing look, if it weren't cold enough already. "Please... Don't talk about that."

Olivia managed a nod.

"She's right," grunted Ash, trying to wriggle into a better position. "I can't just freeze to death." He impatiently cycled the bolt of his gun again.

Fred examined Ash carefully. "You SPARTAN-IIIs will need your pills ASAP."

"Simple pan," croaked Linda. "Burn in, grab a pelican, hi-tail it."

Fred shook his head. "We can't let ourselves be fooled," he warned. "We stand no chance."

There was a rumble, and a flash lightened the dark landscape.

Fred looked up. "What in the..."

Then everything started to explode.

* * *

**22 July, 2554, 3020 Hours, ****Above Settlement 1A, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

Alice dashed through the remains of the ship, MA5B blazing a path through the waves of infection forms that followed Serina... no, the Gravemind's call.

Her COM crackled to life. "Red-two! Get over here, now! Your bit of the ship is detaching!"

She keyed her COM. "Red-two to Red-one! I'm under attack by hundreds of infection form - aaah!"

She fired her rifle in a panicked three-round burst at an infection form diving into her chest. It exploded, and she ripped the needle-like tentacles out of her chestplate.

"Negative, Red-One. I'm unable to get to the checkpoint on time!" she shouted desperately.

Jerome, a few hundred meters away, cursed quietly. Already they'd been fighting non-stop for a day, and were running low on ammo. Alice had been sent on a mission to destroy a large beam that was vital to the ship's integrity with some C-12. She'd also set up remote plasma charges to blow the ship in half, decompress everything, kill the flood, and land, more or less, on Harvest.

But the Serina... Or the now infected version of her... Wasn't co-operating. At all.

"Jerome! Fire the charges! I'll crash this side of the boat myself!"

Jerome noticed the use of his first name, not his designation, Red-one. This was plea.

"Goodbye, Alice," Jerome whispered, and touched off a charge.

Alice was still shooting when the charges went off.

There was a loud _schhhhhhh!_ as the charges flared purple and blue. She was thrown back in the zero-g by the explosion, and heard a _whump _of the ship rapidly decompressing.

The gravitational pull of the planet below them grabbed the ship, and snapped the frayed spacecraft in half. With her on the wrong side, Alice mused. She quickly grabbed a frayed piece of Titanium A, ripped it off the wall, and shoved it onto her back magnets. That would serve as a heatshield, should a drop come.

Alice gritted her teeth and jumped.

* * *

**22 July, 2554, 3023 Hours, Settlement 1A Outskirts, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

The SPARTANs immediately forgot their cold as the new situation spread out in front of them. Adrenalin pumping, they scrambled to their feet.

Olivia vaulted to the pinacle of the rock and pointed.

"Lieutenant! We got a modified Phoenix-Class Colony ship coming in fast!"

Fred frowned as what remained of the ship began to interface with his neural lace.

"...it's the _Spirit of Fire_," he whispered. "That means..."

He was off and running towards the ship in an instant. "Follow me!"

Ash stumbled through the snow. He could feel the anger in him. Undulating like a rough sea in the back of his mind. And his body was responding sluggishly to all his commands from his brain. _SPARTANs were made to be well-oiled machines, _he mused_. Remove the oil, and -_

Boom!

The ship flared magnesium blue and split in half in the atmosphere. Fred stopped and waved his rifle around, tracking the half of the ship closest to them.

"Sir," shouted Linda above the explosions. "Get out of the blast zone! Impact in 5!"

Fred stood his ground, but the rest of the SPARTANs backpedalled.

There was an unexpected, but sickening crunch as the flaming ship impacted into the ice and glass. Then two seconds later, something exploded.

Ash felt himself lifted off his feet, tossed back like a rag doll, and land five meters away. A chain of explosions ripped through the battered ship, throwing green chunks of flood bioma-

Flood Biomass?

Things were seriously messed up now.

* * *

**22 July, 2554, 3023 Hours, Settlement 1A, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

There was a loud crumpling noise as the SPARTAN-II's prone figure hit the ground, armour smoking. She bounced a few times on the snow and collided into a building at at least 40 kilometers an hour, smashed clean through the simple wall, fell through a glass panel and landed into a contamination zone.

The Insurrectionist Scientist hit a button, and sirens began to shriek all over the settlement.

Sean, the scientist, carefully raised an infection rifle. Silently, he cursed the guards. They only carried infection rifles, no conventional weapons. Forerunner Infection rifles were pointless sometimes.

Examining the area, Sean observed the unconscious SPARTAN, and two infected UNSC soldiers. When...

Sean pinpointed it. The SPARTAN-IIIs.

They'd captured a deployment of SPARTANs one day, and then one comes crashing through the window. Things didn't add up.

Suddenly, the infection rifle exploded into grey-yellow powder and fire. Shouting, Sean grabbed a tranquilizer off the table and looked around.

No-one.

Just then the dead SPARTAN stirred.

"Your meagre efforts have failed to manipulate the pure transcendience, Human."

Sean almost screamed. He dropped the smoking infection rifle and backed away from the Flood Infected SPARTAN, advancing towards him. Tom. That's who it had been.

"Is..." Sean's voice cracked and he raised the tranquilizer gun like a club. "I... The Forerunners are your masters, parasite! And we are the reclaimers!"

Tom's corpse broke into dark laughter. "You simple minded fool..." It reared itself up. "I have beaten fleets of thousands! Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone! You think me defeated?"

The Flood form, dropped to the ground, sprang at Sean, and tore him into pieces.

**Now it becomes obvious how the story is going to get complicated. A few more chapters, and we come to the end of Part 1: Harvest.**

**And don't forget to review on your way out.**

**KimJel, out**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**22 July, 2554, 3024 Hours, Settlement 1A Outskirts, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

As the fire seared through the sky, Asher painfully got to his feet.

A flying piece of molten metal had smashed into a wall, sending the tin roof on top of him. He had been lucky. The meteorite of Titanium would have decapitated him.

He'd been hidden in this alleyway for the best part of this day, but now it was time to leave.

Slipping his Magnum and plasma sword out of his belt, he crept out into the alleyway.

It was chaos.

Insurrectionist civilians were screaming and milling around, and a guard was shouting orders.

A smile flitted across Asher's face. Perfect.

Flipping the pistol and taking it by the barrel like a club, he immersed himself into the crowd. Ducking past an old woman's basket, he slid past the guard and took a fleeting glance.

He was fitted in a biohazard suit... Odd. He carried an old M90 shotgun and a plasma pistol.

There was a single, piercing scream from the center of the crowd. Asher slipped towards it.

Crawling over the icy cobblestones, he wondered what they were on - they were running.

Suddenly, a kilogram of beige tentacles and needles hit him on the chest, knocking him down. He cracked it with his pistol, wildly.

A fleeing man tripped over him, screamed, and faceplanted into the snow. Struggling with a lumpy, greyish object on his back, he writhed and suddenly lay still.

Asher froze in horror. They were trying to develop the flood here for their own purposes... He'd seen enough. The mutilated bodies on the vids. The screaming aliens.

Drawing his plasma sword, he ignited it in a fluid move. In a few efficient strokes, the infection form attacking him was bisected.

Screams began to break out around him. Asher quickly noticed the guard advancing.

_Screw this._

Feinting towards the guard cautiously, remembering the longer range of the staff, Asher faked a left swing and dodged right, past the blade of the staff and snapped it in half. Leaping left and back, he disappeared into the crowd, plasma staff guttered on the ground.

Deactivating his own plasma sword, he clicked the safety off his M6D and began sprinting towards the _Spirit of Fire._

* * *

John crouched behind the remains of the building. Screaming people massed through the streets, flood infection forms and a few combat forms marching at the rear.

"This is screwed," John whispered. "We need a better way out."

Kelly turned and examined the military base, about a kilometer off. "We need a Pelican. I know where we can steal one." She pointed.

John nodded, and drew a plasma pistol. "And don't hesitate for me. If I get infected, don't try to save me. Just go."

"Same for you," she retorted.

John slipped the battery in and out of the clip. "Yeah..."

He jumped into the fray, Kelly following.

Firing wildly into the mass of Flood Combat Forms, Kelly barged through the people, John in her wake. An infection form leapt for her chest, she dodged it. One tentacle hooked onto her shirt, and she heard a sizzle of plasma as John fired at the flood. It popped and Kelly felt heat wash over her.

"Thanks," she shouted back, and vaulted onto an aluminium rooftop. She grabbed John's hand and pulled him up.

A sniper bullet whizzed past them.

"We've been spotted," she growled.

Firing a random shots in the direction of the shot with plasma pistol, the pair dived off the building and towards the military hangar. Kelly paused at the door. "I'm gonna -"

John planted a foot on the lock and shoved. "No you're not," he said, with a faint smile.

Kelly shrugged and entered. Climbing into a Pelican, she examine the viewsceen, and frowned.

John cursed under his breath. Encryption codes for unlockin the controls. And fingerprints. They were stuffed.

And the Insurrectionist soldiers were on their way.

John activated the weapons - at least they weren't locked - and let loose a burst of 12.99, shredding the walls. Kelly slammed the entrances and locked the hatches.

"We're dead," Kelly said flatly.

Plasma, needles, and heavy pistol rounds slammed into the reinforced screen of the Pelican as the guards burst through different emergency exits. John swept the chaingun around in a wide circle, mowing down a few guards.

"That was too easy," Kelly hissed.

There was a light thump as someone jumped on roof. A plasma cutter opened the viewscreen. John fired out of the hole, hoping to hit someone.

Kelly heard a grenade pin being pulled.

And a fist connecting with someone's head. Hard.

"John? Kelly? Is it really you?"

John and Kelly exchanged incredulous glances.

"Keiichi?"

* * *

The insurrectionist guard grinned at the two SPARTANs. "I was holed up on this planet during the Harvest Campaign. Dumped by the Spirit of Fire. Posed as an ex-UNSC member for all these years..."

He slicked his hand through his hair. "You need the encryption codes? Gottem."

He winked.

John broke into a grin. "Keiichi... This is hard to believe. Are you updated on everthing that's happened?"

Keiichi nodded. "Move over, Kelly," he said and climbed into the drivers seat. Sliding a card into the lock, he planted his finger in a little module.

A loud beeeeeep and it was done. The controls unlocked.

Kelly paused, examining Keiichi. "Keiichi, this is amazing. I -"

"Reunions later," John warned. "We've got Blue Team to rescue."

"Sure," grinned Kelly as Keiichi fired the engines. "Let's go."

**Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long! I'm sorry... Right now I'm working on an attempt in Star Wars (now for some shameless advertising) so if you could check it out that... (or if you didn't check it out, you don't need to if you dislike Star Wars). But thanks for all the support thats coming through! And don't forget to review (like how I forget to write!)**

**Oh, BTW... How do you like the new cover for the story? Drew it myself. That's Asher in the picture.**

**KimJel, out.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**22 July, 2554, 3026 Hours, Spirit of Fire Crash Site, Harvest System, Planet Harvest**

"Fred!" Linda screamed. She jumped into the flames and began dragging Fred out.

Ash instantly followed her, dumping snow on the worst patches of flame and using a piece of semi-molten titanium on a stick to shield the worst flames. Grabbing Fred's legs, he helped Linda drag him out.

Holly dumped some snow on his burns and felt his pulse.

"He's alive," she grunted, and began examining his burns.

Fred's eyes popped open and he groaned. "The... What..." he croaked.

Linda touched his shoulder. "Shh. You got hit by..."

She spun around and mentally accessed the remains of the ship's database with her UNSC mental lace.

"...the _Spirit of Fire_? That ship went MIA..."

"After the battle of Harvest," Mark put in.

"Yeah," Linda said. "Wasn't Alice, Jerome, Malcom and Keiichi on that ship?"

"Weren't," Ash corrected.

Fred tried to sit up. "They -"

Holly pressed him back down. "Just a sec."

Linda sighed. "Holly, we don't have 'just a sec'. We need to move, and need to move fast."

Ash grabbed Linda. "No! I mean, yes! I... Look!"

An incinerated combat form staggered out of the _Spirit_, and then collapsed in the flames. Infection forms began to skitter towards them.

"What are those things?" whispered Fred.

Linda frowned. "I don't know, but I don't think they're friendly."

Ash sighed. "We need to move, now!"

Linda snapped up. "Alright, Private, I'm taking command of this. Holly -"

"Excuse me," growled Fred, trying to rise again.

Linda snapped him off. "Fred, you're wounded. Holly, you and Ash take him."

"I can carry him by mysel-" Ash began, but Linda cut him off again. "No. We'll need to run, at the looks."

Fred examined Linda as if she were a new creature. "Linda, I've discovered a side to you I never knew existed."

Linda didn't comment, but grabbed her S2. "Let's go."

"One problem," Ash growled. "More enemy."

How the parasitic aliens had gotten without them noticing, the SPARTANs didn't know. Didn't care. Didn't have time.

Ash stumbled back, a red trail of blood mixed with flood biomass and ichor slashed across his chest. Linda instantly fired a round into the flood, but it took three shots to hit the infection form inside.

"No good," she shouted, and swapped weapons. Firing a sustained burst from an MA5, she tore several infection forms into pieces. "We're dead."

Ash kicked out at a combat form, only to have it absorb the shock. He hit it again, but it lashed out and knocked him to the ground.

Then the world turned purple.

* * *

A flurry and blur of snowflakes and purple energy slammed into the flood combat forms, bisecting, trisecting. The flood dropped to the ground, sizzling in the cold and heat.

Asher snapped the violet energy blade off, and pulled Ash's hand up. "SPARTANs?"

Ash frowned at the hand. "Who are you?"

Asher frowned back. "I thought that maybe you, Ash, of all people..." his voice trailed off.

Ash pulled away. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

Asher shook his head. "Are you SPARTANs?"

Linda raised her MA5 casually. "Look, kid, is this some sort of -"

Asher snapped up his plasma pistol. "OK! I don't care. But these things are the flood, and I'm helping you. I'm a friend of John."

"John?" Fred coughed. "John...! Where is he?"

Asher blinked. "I dunno. He's fighting his way out with Kelly."

"Kelly?"

Asher sighed. "Long story. But not now. Ok, these creeps, they're the flood. Kill them. Shotgun's best. John's fought them before, and they're controlled by this mega evil bot named Gravemind. Kill him, too."

Linda lowered her MA5. "So, kid, then who are you?"

Asher eyed Linda coldly. "Closer a relative to you than you think. You could call me a SPARTAN III. Technically, I am. I'm Asher"

Ash frowned. "I don't see -"

Asher stepped forward and planted a fist in his chest. "Well, if you can't see, you're either blind or you need to open your eyes."

"I see," Holly answered. "But arguing isn't going to get us anywhere."

Linda examined the boy. His voice... that was vaguely familiar. Somewhere, a long time ago... No, it couldn't have been. _That_ had been back before the kid had even been born.

"I can only trust you," Linda decided, laying of the 'kid'. "But one false move, and you're dead."

Asher twitched a grin. "You won't manage it."

Ash frowned. "That's familiar."

Disgusted, Asher examined the SPARTAN III. "It should be."

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a flat object. Purple-blue light pulsed out of it. "I take it you know Cortana?"

Linda gasped. She'd been partially aquainted with the Smart AI before OPERATION: RED FLAG. And before OPERATION: FIRST STRIKE. She snatched the datapad away from Asher.

Moving with amazing speed, he flicked the datapad behind his back, threw it into the air over his head, and caught it. "Predictable," he scoffed. "I expected better of SPARTANs."

"All right," Linda said. "I give in. We need to move it."

Asher shook his head. "No need." Pointing into the sky, he identified a Pelican dropship coming down. "Welcome wagon."


End file.
